This post has updates below, including a response from AJC’s Mark Niesse and Coffee County native Stephanie Flagg.

What conclusions should we draw when official explanations for seminal events shift with the wind?

Multiple, highly placed officials in Georgia have changed their stories when pressed on Coffee County breaches. Brad Raffensperger, Gabriel Sterling, and now Coffee County Elections chairman Wendell Stone, all changed their “official line” about the conspiracy to breach election systems in that small, Georgia county in January 2021.

‘It’s been humiliating’: Coffee County official slams lack of transparency in ’21 breach [UPDATED]

Citizens and activists were pushing to “break the dam” during a June Coffee County Board of Elections (BoE) meeting, where a proposal from retired attorney and longtime-Coffee resident Jim Hudson’s proposal for independent investigation was to be considered. But Hudson’s proposal failed (despite earlier promises of support), and the dam held… followed by further attempts to plug leaking water.

Gravity is not an alleged theory…

As Robert Preston reports for DouglasNow, Coffee County board of elections chair Wendell Stone finally, many months later, acknowledged that gravity is real and the breach occurred.

However, the language Stone used in his prepared statement is painfully passive and doesn’t stand up to established facts. The first sentence of his statement (which was, notably, not adopted by the board) calls the intrusions “alleged breaches” (emphasis mine):

“For months now, media sources have reported on a series of alleged breaches election security which took place in the Coffee County Elections Office. Beginning January 7, 2021, individuals were apparently improperly provided access to the election office. Video seems to show that our former election supervisor granted this access to our office. It has been reported that there were at least two more incidents in the month of January. There is video evidence which also suggests that while inside the election office, these individuals were given access to election equipment, software and election data. The video also contains evidence that along with the former election supervisor, a former election board member was present when these events took place. According to media reports, Gabe Sterling of the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office referred to some of the individuals who entered the elections office as ‘data collectors,’ and said the data collectors illegally accessed the server and voting machines. He also said, ‘It’s criminal behavior, and that’s why the GBI is involved, and why we can’t get into too much detail at this time.’ Sterling is also reported to have said, ‘What we’re seeing basically is the elections director in Coffee County was the threat vector here that allowed unauthorized access to these individuals.’”

Why is the word “alleged” laughable? Because bad actors have already bragged about fruits of their crimes. In a very good investigatory series, Reuters documents how information pilfered during the intrusion has already been trafficked by Sid Powell operatives. (See the above screencap; Reuters is just one of many outlets that established/repeated events as they happened, to say nothing of multiple depositions and witness statements.)

…and Misty Hampton is not a ‘threat vector’

In my exclusive, follow-up interview with Coffee County resident Jim Hudson (himself a retired attorney trying to force the elections board to adopt that resolution for independent investigation), told me that Misty Hampton was being used as a sacrificial scapegoat by recalcitrant leaders. He said many on the current board were reluctant to even acknowledge the intrusion occurred.

“When I went to the first meeting in May, they would not even concede there was a breach. And that they weren’t going to do any investigating.”

He adds that Misty Hampton wasn’t the lone actor, either.

‘It’s peanuts’ by comparison

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