The strange story of an alleged election conspiracy For months, a small Michigan company that sells software to help municipalities manage work schedules and payroll accounts of election workers has been under scrutiny by two prominent members of a conservative "election integrity" group based in Texas that has helped spread false fraud claims about the 2020 election. Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote, and her partner Gregg Phillips alleged that the company, Konnech Inc., had allowed the Chinese government to have access to a server in China that held the personal information of nearly 2 million U.S. election workers — an allegation the company has vigorously disputed. Then, just days after the New York Times published an account of the company being a "conspiracy theory target," the Los Angeles district attorney announced that its chief executive, Eugene Yu, had been arrested on charges that appeared to mirror the claims of the election deniers. True the Vote even issued a news release taking credit for inspiring the DA's investigation. It seemed a rare case of an alleged election-conspiracy theory potentially having a factual basis. Yet, in a parallel track in another courtroom, a federal judge in Texas has blasted Phillips, Engelbrecht and True the Vote for their allegations about Konnech. The judge, Kenneth M. Hoyt, nominated to the bench by Ronald Reagan, even warned the group's lawyer that "I'm thinking you may be played" by his clients. The outcome of this complex case may not be clear for some time. But it indicates how election deniers have begun to gain a foothold within the legal system to advance their claims. Our full report can found via the link. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Yet another GOP ad falsely tags with the 'defund police' label Ever since liberal activists adopted the slogan of "defund the police" in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd, Republicans have sought to tag Democrats with the phrase — even those who state clearly they do not support it. In a new attack ad, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, GOP nominee for Senate, asserted that Trudy Busch Valentine, his Democratic rival, supports an "anti-cop agenda." The ad shows images of four women — three of whom are black — who support Valentine, a member of the wealthy Anheuser-Busch family. It suggests, with misleading editing of a video clip, that she supports their position on "defund the police" — even though she does not. Valentine has been consistent she wants to boost police funding, not reduce it. "I think defunding the police is totally wrong," she said in an interview this year, "because we need to be funding the police with the money and training they need to keep all of us safe." Confronted with this uncomfortable fact, the Schmitt campaign has chosen to falsely suggest the Senate hopeful supports the opinions of some of her supporters — which in turn are much more nuanced than this sledgehammer ad implies. Polls show Schmitt with a commanding lead in the race, which makes one wonder why in the final weeks his campaign has resorted to misleading video editing and guilt by association to make a bogus claim. He earned Four Pinocchios. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP and @AdriUsero) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
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