By Drew Dixon
Multiple media accounts are reporting that a man has been arrested in Palm Beach County on charges connected to stealing election data and equipment in the Congressional district, which is home to Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s Florida home.
The Palm Beach Post, WPTV-TV and Right Line News Chief Content Officer Eric Daugherty are detailing that a man named John Panicci was arrested Saturday at his home in Greenacres. He’s accused of taking a computer access key to encrypted data from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office at 4301 Cherry Road.
The election equipment theft allegations are in U.S. House District 57. That’s where Democrat Emily Gregory flipped the House District in an upset victory Tuesday. She defeated Republican John Maples with 49.15% of the vote, compared to 48.85% for Maples. Not only was the Special Election to fill the seat vacated by Republican Mike Caruso in August, but the contest also received intense nationwide attention because the seat is where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and Florida home are located.
Democrats boasted about Gregory’s victory as proof that Trump was losing ground with the electorate.
The key to the voting computer was reported stolen by elections officials on Friday. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s officials, acting on an arrest warrant and a search warrant, went to Panicci’s home Saturday, where he was arrested. WPTV reports that sheriff’s investigators found the key, which was designed to access training databases.
Additional material and other stolen items, such as electronic and digital storage devices, were found at Paccini’s home, and he was transported to the Palm Beach County Jail.
There had been fears expressed by Trump himself of election tampering, and the arrest accentuates those concerns. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections officials had been conducting training sessions in preparation for the March 24 election. Officials with the elections office told investigators the key might have been stolen during one of those training sessions on March 19.
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