Pro-Trump attorney returns to Michigan to turn herself in on outstanding warrant
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — An attorney who unsuccessfully sued to overturn former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss in Michigan was ordered held on $10,000 bond Thursday after she appeared in a Michigan court on an outstanding warrant.
Stefanie Lambert turned herself in Thursday morning after having been arrested in Washington, D.C. earlier this week as a result of a bench warrant issued by a Michigan judge.
Lambert is facing felony charges of improperly accessing voting equipment in a search for evidence of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election from Trump. She had failed to appear at a March 7 hearing, resulting in the warrant.
Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Matis ordered Lambert to be taken into custody for purposes of fingerprinting and DNA. She returned to the courtroom Thursday wearing a maroon uniform and with her hands cuffed. Matis then ordered that Lambert post a $10,000 cash bond to be released.
Prosecutors argued Thursday during proceedings before Matis that Lambert’s actions had forced the entire case “to come to a screeching halt.” Also facing charges in the case are former state GOP Rep. Daire Rendon and Matthew DePerno, former Republican state attorney general candidate.
“Her disruption here has been immense,” said Timothy Maat, a prosecutor from Muskegon County.
The March 7 hearing that Lambert had missed — leading to the warrant — concerned a fingerprint and DNA order that Lambert had refused to comply with.
Lambert’s lawyer, Dan Hartman, blamed her missed March 7 appearance on a “breakdown in communication with her former attorney.”
“The reality is, Your Honor, that during this entire period of time of the 14 days, she’s lived at the same house, she’s worked at the same house. She was never a fugitive of justice,” Hartman said.
A pre-trial hearing in Lambert’s case was set for March 28.
Lambert was arrested late Monday following her appearance in federal court in the nation’s capital in another legal matter connected to the election conspiracy theories she and other Trump allies have promulgated. She was in court to defend her actions of leaking internal emails from Dominion Voting Systems, which she obtained during her time as an attorney representing an election denier accused of defaming the company.
District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Heide Herrmann ordered Lambert released on an unsecured $10,000 bond after Lambert’s lawyer said she was “willing and ready” to return to Michigan and face the warrant.