Trump's DOJ hires voting rights lawyer behind L.A. case cited by conspiracy theorists

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

Eric Neff’s tenure at the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office ended after he was placed on administrative leave in 2022 over accusations of misconduct in the prosecution of the CEO of Konnech, a software company that election conspiracy theorists said was in the thrall of the Chinese government.Now, three years later, Neff is serving as one of the Trump administration’s top election watchdogs.Late last year , his name began appearing on lawsuits filed by the U.S.Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, listed as “acting chief” of the voting section.Neff’s appointment, first reported by Mother Jones, has prompted renewed scrutiny of his work at the L.A.

County district attorney’s office.The Times interviewed several of Neff’s former colleagues, who revealed new details about claims of misconduct that emerged from the Konnech case, and said they were alarmed that someone with almost no background in federal election law was named to a senior position.Neff led the 2022 investigation of Konnech, a tiny Michigan company whose software is used by election officials in several major cities.In a criminal complaint, Neff accused the company’s CEO, Eugene Yu, of fraud and embezzlement, alleging the company stored poll worker information on a server based in China, a violation of its contract with the L.A.

County registrar’s office.Six weeks after a complaint was filed, prosecutors dropped the case and launched an investigation into “irregularities” and bias in the way evidence was presented against Konnech, the D.A.’s office said in a 2022 statement.The county paid Konnech $5 million and joined a motion to find Yu factually innocent as part of a legal settlement.The internal probe was focused on accusations that Neff misled supervisors at the district attorney’s office about the role of election deniers in his investigation, according to two ...