Federal and state officials investigate attempted breach of Ohio county office after data appears at 'Big Lie' symposium

Federal and state officials are investigating an attempted breach of an Ohio county government office, in one of multiple instances this year in which data from a local government office was circulated at a conference promoting false claims of election fraud.

The incident at the office of John Hamercheck, who is president of Ohio's Lake County Board of Commissioners, involved someone plugging a private laptop into the computer network in Hamercheck's office, according to two people briefed on the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A third source briefed on the investigation, a US official, confirmed that the investigation centered around a private laptop being used at the Lake County Board of Commissioners.

While no sensitive information was taken from Hamercheck's office, routine internet traffic unrelated to the election captured by the laptop was later distributed at an August conference hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell that promoted false claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen, according to the people briefed on the investigation. Robert Graham, a cybersecurity expert who attended the Lindell-hosted conference, told CNN that digital copies of computer files that were labeled as coming from Lake County were distributed at the event.