Michigan sheriff enlists private eye to grill clerks in vote fraud probe

LANSING — A Michigan sheriff investigating the 2020 election is using a private investigator to question clerks, an unorthodox arrangement that baffles local officials in a region former President Donald Trump dominated last fall.

Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, a Republican who plotted to seize voting machines after the November election and was in communication with allies to Trump at the time, is now working with a private investigator named Michael Lynch, a former security official for DTE Energy in Detroit.

Leaf did not answer calls or respond to a text message from Bridge Michigan. The Hastings Banner newspaper reported that the sheriff said Lynch was recommended to him by Stefanie Lambert Junttila, a Detroit-area attorney facing potential sanctions related to the “Kraken” lawsuit that sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s election win.

Lynch and a sheriff’s deputy have visited at least six township clerks, according to Barry County Clerk Pam Palmer, a Republican who criticized what she called a secretive investigation that has frightened local officials.

Read more: https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-sheriff-enlists-private-eye-grill-clerks-vote-fraud-probe


Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf is one of a handful of self-described "constitutional sheriffs" in Michigan who contend they are the highest level of governmental authority and can defy or disregard laws that they find unconstitutional. (Photo courtesy of Chris duMond)