The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled a Texas federal district court judge Monday ordering the release of True the Vote leaders Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips from a Houston prison.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt ordered that the pair be held for at least a day or “until they fully comply with the Court’s Order,” Hoyt wrote.
Engelbrecht and Phillips have refused to tell the court information the judge has ordered them to produce concerning elections software company Konnech, according to the Texas Tribune.
True the Vote claimed information on poll workers was being stored on servers in China and made other allegations against the company and Konnech chief executive Eugene Yu. Konnech sued them saying the claims are false and that the company was defamed, according to The Washington Post.
“Yu was later arrested and charged by the Los Angeles district attorney for allegedly storing government data in China, which is in breach of the company’s contract. L.A. officials reportedly received their initial tip regarding Yu from Phillips,” The Post Millennial reported.
Trending:
Breaking: Judge orders release from detention for True the Vote’s Catherine Engelbrecht & Gregg Phillips. They spent a week in jail for refusing to say the name of a witness in Konnech v. True the Vote. They appealed their detention in the 5th Circuit and were granted release. pic.twitter.com/ECvk7tbOeb
— Ivory Hecker (@IvoryHecker) November 7, 2022
In their filing for release from prison to the Fifth Circuit, Engelbrecht and Phillips said that Hoyt’s confinement order “represents a clear abuse of discretion and a manifest miscarriage of justice.”
“Petitioners pray that this court enter an order releasing them from the district court’s draconian order of detention for refusing to identify a federal confidential informant in open court whose identity in any event has no bearing on the merits of this defamation case hinging on competing accounts of alleged historical events,” they added.
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