ARIZONA

How to see the hidden text messages Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan blacked out

Robert Anglen Ryan Randazzo
Arizona Republic

Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan attempted to block public view of more than 1,400 texts he traded with a Michigan lawyer tied to data breaches in four states.

He blacked out texts, but The Arizona Republic was able to digitally remove his redactions and view the messages.

We wanted to share the method we used with you.

The hidden texts were among 39,000 messages Logan has released in response to a public records lawsuit filed by The Republic in 2021 for all communications related to the Arizona "audit."

The "audit" has so far cost taxpayers about $5.5 million. The Arizona Senate hired Logan to lead a hand count of 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County's 2020 election. Former Senate President Karen Fann in 2021 said the review was non-partisan and had nothing to do with Donald Trump or overturning the election.

Texts, however, reveal Trump's allies and lawyers were involved in nearly every facet of the "audit." The texts showed that Logan was enlisted as part of a coordinated effort to overturn election results in several swing states, including Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Presenters of the report on the election audit, from left, Ben Cotton, the founder of CyFIR, Doug Logan, the CEO of Cyber Ninjas and Randy Pullen, the audit spokesman, look on before the start of the presentation to the Arizona State Senate in the Senate chambers of the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix on Sept. 24, 2021.

How to uncover Cyber Ninjas' hidden texts

People who want to remove the redactions from Doug Logan’s text messages can start by downloading his redacted messages from the public “reading room” that lawyers for the Arizona Senate created.

This public website includes all of the documents the Senate and Cyber Ninjas have turned over in response to public records cases.

This is the link to the reading room: https://web.tresorit.com/l/XMN4J#pqSHHqcq_c_eP90cdWcdSg.

It contains tens of thousands of documents within various folders, dated from when the submissions were made. Not all can be unredacted.

The messages with Michigan lawyer Stefanie Lambert are in a folder submitted July 26 and can be found here: https://web.tresorit.com/l/XMN4J#pqSHHqcq_c_eP90cdWcdSg&MHTJPU8ldBiotX4Iz71fkVCJp7JD8Jrt.

The PDF document can be downloaded.

By using PDF editing software such as Adobe Acrobat, users may open that document, click on the black boxes that hide the messages between Logan and Lambert, then delete them.

Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter for The Republic. Reach him at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @robertanglen.

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo atryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@UtilityReporter.