Stephanie Lambert, a Michigan lawyer, was detained Monday in Washington, D.C. The arrest happened after she failed to appear for a bench warrant issued more than a week ago in a criminal case alleging she fraudulently accessed voting equipment in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
Lambert was apprehended by the United States Marshals Service in a courtroom in the District of Columbia, according to Brady McCarron, a Marshals Service spokesperson.
Lambert appeared in court in Washington, D.C., on Monday, representing former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne in a separate complaint. Dominion Voting Systems has filed a slander action against Byrne, who was involved in unsuccessful attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Lambert was taken into jail by the Metropolitan Police Department on Tuesday morning. In an email, police spokesperson Tom Lynch stated that the woman had been charged with “Fugitive from Justice,” a holding crime.
Lambert, an ally of former President Donald Trump, did not appear for a court hearing in Oakland County on March 7 addressing a court order forcing her to undergo fingerprinting, which she had yet to comply with. Lambert received a bench warrant.
During a hearing last Wednesday, Oakland County Circuit Court Chief Judge Jeffery Matis, who presided over Lambert’s case, dismissed a move to set aside the bench warrant after Lambert had days to turn herself up. Lambert is challenging the fingerprinting order in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
In court records, she claims that her absence to appear for the March 7 hearing was not intentional, claiming a communication breakdown with her former attorney. She further claims that the fingerprinting order violates her right to due process and that the special prosecutor in the case against her would illegally compare the information to evidence acquired from the voting equipment she allegedly handled.
Lambert was involved in a Michigan lawsuit that fueled conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems, as well as an unsuccessful legal bid led by attorney Sidney Powell to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Michigan and award the state’s Electoral College delegates to Trump.
Amid legal setbacks in litigation involving the 2020 election, Lambert toured across Michigan convincing local officials to perform their election audits.
A grand jury accused Lambert last August of allegedly conspiring with other Trump associates to gain illicit access to voting equipment following the 2020 election. She has consistently criticized the special prosecutor’s review that resulted in the accusations. In a video sent to her Telegram account on the eve of her indictment, she accused Democrats of attempting to silence her as part of a conspiracy to keep Trump out of power.
When Muskegon County Prosecutor DJ Hilson revealed Lambert’s accusations in August, he mentioned that he took the uncommon step of seeking to assemble a grand jury. “These charges were authorized by an independent citizen’s grand jury,” Hilson stated at the time. “Protecting the election process is of the utmost importance for our state and country.” He described the prosecution as “an important step in that direction.”