The Asian man who filed a defamation lawsuit against Texas organizers of the film 2000 Mules was arrested in Los Angeles last week.
Eugene Yu, president of Konnech, which was the focus of the popular "True the Vote" documentary, was arrested as part of an investigation into the possible theft of personal identifying information of Los Angeles County election poll workers.
“We will continue to report evidence of threats to our election process and work with law enforcement to ensure our elections are a secure space for all American voters,” said Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote.
Last month, Yu was handed a legal victory when a federal judge temporarily restrained True The Vote from accessing any more of Konnech computers and ordered it to provide information on how it was able to tap into the company’s network.
“The Temporary Restraining Order [TRO] is in the public interest because it is in the public’s interest to enjoin conduct that the United States Congress has found to be unlawful, to prevent the disclosure of personal identifying and banking information, and the TRO would, in fact, benefit the public’s expectation of integrity in the U.S. election process,” U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt wrote in his Sept. 12 order.
Engelbrecht and board member Gregg Phillips were accused by Yu in the lawsuit of racism, defamation, xenophobia, and violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
"Election integrity should not be a partisan issue, nor should media try to suppress all conversation about it in a way that benefits one party,” Engelbrecht added.
Los Angeles District Attorney investigators, who seized Konnech hard drives and other digital evidence, are in the process of extraditing Yu from Michigan to California.
The PollChief software that was seized manages poll worker assignments, communications, and payroll but the data was stored on servers in the People’s Republic of China, according to a press release.
“Data breaches are an ongoing threat to our digital way of life,” said Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. “When we entrust a company to hold our confidential data, they must be willing and able to protect our personal identifying information from theft. Otherwise, we are all victims."
2000 Mules will be screened publicly without cost on One America News Network on Oct. 15 and 16 at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. PST, according to a Twitter post.