Republican Doug Mastriano threatened a Pennsylvania county if they didn't do an election 'audit'

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano was outed Thursday after American Oversight requested 2020 election documents in the state that involved the Republican leader.

Mastriano, who is now running for governor, threatened Fulton County, PA, saying that if they refused to do an "audit" of their election then he would subpoena them.

As an avid supporter of Donald Trump, the GOP official followed what is being called the "big lie," that the ex-president had the election stolen from him.

American Oversight was following up on a report from the Washington Post that revealed that the Fulton County audit took place without any knowledge of the County Commissioner Paul Shives, who happens to be a Democrat. A firm involved in the Arizona sham audit, Wake Technology Services Inc, was also responsible for the Fulton County audit. They're not accredited by the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission, the report noted.

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Fulton County, PA is notoriously red, with Trump winning the area by 85 percent, so it's unclear why the GOP is demanding so much be done to prove that there was no fraud when Trump won.

Text messages showed Shives and other commissioners noted that they were frustrated with being shut out of the election review. A message from elections director Patti Hess said that Mastriano told "all counties … to do this or be subpoena[ed] to prove votes."

Commission Chair Stuart Ulsh replied, "It was happening this way or in a subpoena."

Other records uncovered by American Oversight's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed, "on Nov. 12, 2020, Commissioner Randy Bunch, a vocal Trump supporter, emailed state Sen. Judy Ward, who had reportedly been working with Mastriano in Dec.

In the email Bunch said: "Sending this email to see what’s going on with this rigged election. … We can’t let this election get stolen if there is anything I can do please let me know."

They also noted that public records showed that the audit company co-founder emailed Bunch and Ulsh asking for their personal email addresses. Emails that aren't hosted on official networks are easier to hide from FOIA requests and any transparency or government accountability.

They also passed around emails about the Cyber Ninjas, doing the "audit" in Arizona noting that the company's CEO was supportive of the "Stop the Steal" movement.

After Wake Technology Services Inc conducted a forensic analysis of the electronic voting machines in Fulton those machines, like in Maricopa County, would be decertified. The cost for that wasn't allocated to the committee probing the election. So, they would need an addendum to pay anything exceeding $270,000.

The probe of the machines, which were leased by Dominion Voting Systems, was stopped at the last minute. Dominion explained that allowing an uncredited company look at the machines is a breach of their contract with the county. Republicans are still not clear on how much it would cost.

See the full report at American Oversight.