Draft of Cyber Ninjas GOP-led audit confirms Biden won, Maricopa County says
A partisan review of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County, Arizona, confirmed that President Joe Biden won, county officials said Thursday.
The "draft report from Cyber Ninjas confirms the county's canvass of the 2020 General Election was accurate and the candidates certified as the winners did, in fact, win," Maricopa County tweeted Thursday night.
Cyber Ninjas is the Florida-based cybersecurity company leading an effort by Republicans to review the 2020 presidential election in Arizona.
Republican lawmakers and other officials in Arizona have challenged Biden's victory there, targeting Maricopa, the state's most populous county. The review was delayed last month after several members of the Cyber Ninjas team, including its CEO, tested positive for Covid-19.
The full findings are scheduled to be released Friday in the state Senate. NBC affiliate KPNX of Phoenix said that it obtained a copy of the report and that the review widens Biden's victory margin by 360 votes.
County officials did not release the draft.
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican who ordered the election review, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night. She told KPNX that "we will all find out tomorrow" about the contents of the report, but said "there is a lot of information you all need to see."
Former President Donald Trump on Friday criticized media coverage of the report, mischaracterizing its findings and calling on the state's attorney general to further investigate the election results. Trump has long erroneously claimed he won the November election.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers said the board would likely be accused of not cooperating or "failing to fill holes in the knowledge of the Senate's chosen contractor."
"How could we cooperate with an inquiry that was led by people who have no idea how to run any election, let alone one in the second largest voting district in the United States?" he asked.
