Prosecutor: L.A.'s Communist D.A. Dropped Election Data Case Because It Might Help Trump

https://thefederalist.com/2024/04/17/prosecutor-california-da-dropped-bombshell-election-data-case-because-it-might-help-trump/

For political reasons, Los Angeles D.A. George Gascon dismissed the criminal
charges against Konnech CEO Eugene Yu, says the lead prosecutor on the case.

L.A. County District Attorney George Gascon improperly-- and for political
reasons-- dismissed the criminal charges against the CEO of election software
services company Konnech, a governmental tort complaint filed Wednesday by the
lead prosecutor on the case claims. That eight-page complaint against Gascon
with the county Board of Supervisors further alleges the D.A. retaliated
against his lead prosecutor for opposing the dismissal of the charges-- and
reveals many more previously unknown and troubling details about the entire
case.

On Oct. 4, 2022, the L.A. County district attorney's office announced Eugene
Yu, the CEO of the Michigan-based Konnech, had been arrested in conjunction
with criminal charges pending in California. In announcing Yu's arrest, the
D.A.'s office stated that "under its $2.9 million, five-year contract with the
county, Konnech was supposed to securely maintain the data and that only
United States citizens and permanent residents have access to it." However, in
violation of the contract, "information was stored on servers in the People's
Republic of China," according to the press release.

Yu was later arrested and extradited to California, where the far-left Gascon
eventually dismissed the criminal charges against Yu. L.A. County later also
approved a $5 million payout to Yu to settle a civil lawsuit the Konnech CEO
had filed against the government.

From a legal perspective, the dismissal of the criminal charges was baffling,
as the criminal complaint filed against Yu stated that during the execution of
a search warrant at Konnech, the government recovered evidence that employees
had "sent personal identifying information of Los Angeles County election
workers to third-party software developers who assisted with the creating and
fixing [of] Konnech's internal 'PollChief' software." The criminal complaint
further stated that a project manager for Konnech's contract with L.A. County
"confirmed via the messaging app DingTalk that any employee for Chinese
contractors working on PollChief software had 'super-administrative'
privileges for all PollChief clients."

Politics, however, seemed to explain Gascon's decision, as soon after news of
Yu's arrest broke, the right-leaning group True the Vote issued a press
release, stating:

     True the Vote is honored to have played a small role in
     what must have been a wide-ranging and complex
     investigation. The organization is profoundly grateful
     to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office for their
     thorough work and rapid action in this matter.

Gregg Phillips, a former board member of True the Vote, claimed he had
testified "in the grand jury in Los Angeles County that eventually indicted
Mr. Yu."

As I reported at the time, Gascon's office initially claimed Phillips played
no role in the investigation but later acknowledged Phillips' report to the
Public Integrity Division was "the first step in a thorough independent and
still ongoing investigation which ultimately led to the arrest and charging of
Mr. Yu."

The reasonable inference from these facts-- that the decision to drop the
charges against Konnech was a political one-- now has further support by the
complaint filed by lead prosecutor Eric Neff.

Neff's complaint to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, filed by Neff's
attorney as notice of a "governmental tort claim"-- a prerequisite to suing
civilly-- provides a behind-the-scenes summary of the investigation, the
resulting charges, and the eventual dismissal.

According to Neff, Yu, through Konnech, provided services to Los Angeles under
a nearly $3 million contract: "As part of this contract, Konnech was entrusted
with sensitive and confidential information regarding county election
workers..." Following an investigation and the eventual execution of a search
warrant at Konnech, Yu's "computer servers were confiscated," Neff explained.


District attorney investigators, according to Neff's complaint, "recovered
several explosive pieces of evidence in the form of electronic communications
as well as one cooperating witness-- an employee with knowledge of the
company's facially inadequate practices and procedures." That evidence showed,
according to Neff, that "Konnech was sending sensitive [Personal Identifying
Information] data to Chinese-owned and operated third-party contractors
through Chinese-owned and operated messaging applications."

In his internal complaint, Neff stated that between Oct. 6, 2022, and Oct. 12,
2022, his entire chain of command in the D.A.'s office "thoroughly reviewed
the investigation and evidence against Mr. Yu."

"Ultimately, the case was reviewed by the highest ranking non-elected
prosecutor in the office," Neff continued, "who approved the filing of a
criminal complaint against Mr. Yu." That felony complaint was filed on Oct.
13, 2022.

What happened next was pure politics, Neff's narrative suggests:

     On or about October 17, 2022, D.A. Gascon was
     overwhelmingly concerned that since he had
     inadvertently gained Mr. Trump's (and the far-right
     wing election deniers') support, the outlook of
     such support by prosecuting Mr. Yu would impact
     his stance and popularity politically.

Gascon first assigned another attorney, Luke Sisak, to lead the prosecution
and supervise Neff. Then, according to Neff, on Nov. 10, 2022, Sisak informed
Neff "that management from the D.A.'s Office had ordered the case to be
dismissed."

Neff claims he "verbally complained to Mr. Sisak that there was no legal basis
for the dismissal," and "[m]ore importantly, Mr. Neff objected to the
dismissal because he had reasonable cause to believe that his (Gascon's)
participation in the dismissal was against the law," and "was a politically
based dismissal not in furtherance of justice." The complaint then detailed
the various bases for Neff's concerns. According to Neff, Gascon then ordered
his assistant head deputy to appear in court to dismiss the case.

In a letter on Nov. 14, 2022, Neff, reduced the complaints about the dismissal
of the charges against Yu in writing, claiming "that the dismissal was
politically motivated". Neff further objected to Gascon's decision "because a
prosecutor cannot use political gains as a basis for dismissing a prosecution
of a criminal matter."

Two days later, Neff was put on administrative leave, pending an internal
investigation, according to the internal complaint Neff filed Wednesday with
the county. Nearly a year-and-a-half later, "Neff was informed that the
investigation was completed and that no disciplinary actions would be taken
against him." According to Neff, the result of the investigation should be
"there was no evidence that Mr. Neff committed any misconduct".

Neff was finally reinstated on April 4, 2024 but according to Neff, "in
retaliation to the complaints he made concerning the unlawful dismissal of Mr.
Yu's prosecution, D.A. Gascon removed Mr. Neff from his position prosecuting
political corruption to a much less desirable assignment in the Welfare Fraud
Unit." That reassignment adversely affected Neff's working conditions, his
prospect for advancement and other promotions, his complaint alleges.

The internal complaint against Gascon appears to be a precursor to Neff suing
the D.A.'s office in a civil complaint and if that happens, it seems likely
the public will learn much more about what Konnech and Yu did, or didn’t do--
and why the D.A. really dropped the charges.