Eric Neff’s tenure on the Los Angeles County district lawyer’s workplace ended after he was positioned on administrative go away in 2022 over accusations of misconduct within the prosecution of the CEO of Konnech, a software program firm that election conspiracy theorists stated was within the thrall of the Chinese language authorities.
Now, three years later, Neff is serving as one of many Trump administration’s high election watchdogs.
Late final yr , his identify started showing on lawsuits filed by the U.S. Division of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, listed as “performing chief” of the voting part.
Neff’s appointment, first reported by Mom Jones, has prompted renewed scrutiny of his work on the L.A. County district lawyer’s workplace.
The Occasions interviewed a number of of Neff’s former colleagues, who revealed new particulars about claims of misconduct that emerged from the Konnech case, and stated they have been alarmed that somebody with virtually no background in federal election legislation was named to a senior place.
Neff led the 2022 investigation of Konnech, a tiny Michigan firm whose software program is utilized by election officers in a number of main cities. In a prison criticism, Neff accused the corporate’s CEO, Eugene Yu, of fraud and embezzlement, alleging the corporate saved ballot employee info on a server based mostly in China, a violation of its contract with the L.A. County registrar’s workplace.
Six weeks after a criticism was filed, prosecutors dropped the case and launched an investigation into “irregularities” and bias in the best way proof was introduced in opposition to Konnech, the D.A.’s workplace stated in a 2022 assertion.
The county paid Konnech $5 million and joined a movement to seek out Yu factually harmless as a part of a authorized settlement.
The inner probe was targeted on accusations that Neff misled supervisors on the district lawyer’s workplace in regards to the function of election deniers in his investigation, based on two officers with direct data of the case who requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate it publicly.
Neff additionally allegedly withheld details about potential biases within the case from a grand jury, based on the 2 officers.
In a civil lawsuit filed final yr, Neff stated the interior overview by the D.A.’s workplace cleared him of wrongdoing. The 2 officers aware of the probe who spoke on the situation of anonymity disputed Neff’s characterization of the findings.
A spokesman for Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman declined to remark or present the outcomes of the investigation into Neff, which the officers stated was carried out by an outdoor legislation agency that generated a report on the case. Neff’s lawyer additionally didn’t present a replica of the report.
A Division of Justice spokesman declined to remark.
Neff’s lawyer, Tom Yu — no relation to the Konnech CEO — stated his consumer had no obligation to offer background details about the origins of the case to the grand jury.
Neff’s appointment comes as President Trump continues to remake the DOJ in his personal picture by appointing political loyalists with no prison legislation background as U.S. attorneys in New Jersey and Virginia and looking for prosecutions of his political enemies, corresponding to former FBI Director James Comey.
Trump has by no means recanted his false declare that he gained the 2020 election.
When then-L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón introduced the fees in opposition to Konnech in 2020, Trump stated the progressive prosecutor would develop into a “Nationwide hero on the Proper if he obtained to the underside of this facet of the Voting Fraud.”
The Konnech case was centered on contract fraud, not voter fraud or poll rigging. Six weeks after the fees have been filed, the case disintegrated.
The D.A.’s workplace cited Neff’s over-reliance on proof offered by True the Vote, the group that pushed the unfounded Chinese language authorities conspiracies about Konnech and in addition appeared in a movie that unfold claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Gascón initially denied that True the Vote was concerned within the case, however weeks later, a D.A.’s workplace spokesman stated a report from the group’s co-founder, Gregg Phillips, sparked the prosecution. Phillips testified in courtroom in July 2022 that it was Neff who first contacted him about Konnech.
The 2 officers who spoke to The Occasions stated that Neff withheld True the Vote’s function from high-level D.A.’s workplace employees, together with Gascón, when presenting the case.
Gascón declined an interview request, noting he’s named in Neff’s pending lawsuit, which is slated for trial in early 2026.
Neff’s lawyer insisted the case in opposition to Konnech was stable.
“He was let go as a result of Trump tweeted a press release of ‘Go George Go’,” the lawyer stated. “That’s why Eugene Yu was let go. As a result of Gascón was so scared he was going to lose votes.”
Calls and emails to an lawyer who beforehand represented Eugene Yu weren’t returned.
In his lawsuit, Neff claimed he had proof that “Konnech used third-party contractors based mostly in China and did not abide by safety procedures” to guard L.A. County ballot employee information. The proof was not connected as an exhibit within the lawsuit.
A DOJ spokesperson declined to explain Neff’s job duties. His identify seems on plenty of lawsuits filed in current months in opposition to states which have refused to show over voter registration lists to the Trump administration.
Neff can also be concerned in a go well with filed in opposition to the Fulton County clerk’s workplace in Georgia looking for data associated to the 2020 election, data present.
“We won’t allow states to jeopardize the integrity and effectiveness of elections by refusing to abide by our federal elections legal guidelines,” Asst. Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, the California conservative who now leads the civil rights division, stated in a current assertion. “If states won’t fulfill their responsibility to guard the integrity of the poll, we’ll.”
Dhillon declined to remark by way of a DOJ spokesman.
The voting part “enforces the civil provisions of the federal legal guidelines that defend the proper to vote, together with the Voting Rights Act,” based on the DOJ’s web site.
It doesn’t seem that Neff has any background engaged on instances associated to federal election legislation. He first turned an L.A. County prosecutor in 2013 and spent years dealing with native crime instances out of the Pomona courthouse. He was promoted and reassigned to the Public Integrity Division, which investigates corruption points, in 2020, based on his lawsuit.
Whereas there, he dealt with solely two prosecutions associated to elections. One was the Konnech case. The opposite concerned allegations of election rigging in opposition to a Compton metropolis council member.
In August 2021, Isaac Galvan, a Democrat, was charged with conspiring to commit election fraud after he allegedly labored to direct voters from exterior his council district to solid ballots for him. Galvan gained the race by only one vote, however was booted from workplace when a choose decided at the very least 4 improper ballots had been solid.
Galvan’s prison case remains to be pending; he lately pleaded responsible to fees in a separate corruption and bribery case in federal courtroom. A spokesman for the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Los Angeles stated there was no overlap between the D.A.’s election rigging case and the bribery case in opposition to Galvan. Federal prosecutors aren’t reviewing the Konnech case, the spokesman stated.
Courtroom filings present Neff was concerned in Galvan’s L.A. County case, however the prosecution was led by a extra senior lawyer.
Justin Levitt, a constitutional legislation professor at Loyola Regulation Faculty who served within the civil rights division in the course of the Obama administration, stated part chiefs usually have a long time of expertise within the space of legislation they’re meant to oversee.
“The largest drawback with anyone with Neff’s historical past is the large screaming pink flag that entails submitting a prosecution based mostly on unreliable proof,” Levitt stated. “That’s not one thing any prosecutor ought to do.”
Neff’s lawyer, Yu, scoffed at the concept his consumer was not skilled sufficient for his new function within the Trump administration, or that he was chosen as a result of his involvement within the Konnech case.
“Eric obtained the job as a result of he’s certified to get the job. He didn’t get the job for some other purpose. He obtained the job as a result of he’s a superb advocate,” Yu stated. “I feel the Justice Division could be very lucky to have Eric.”
Occasions Workers Author Seema Mehta contributed to this report.
