This article is reported by Armchair Lehigh Valley and published here with permission. Armchair Lehigh Valley is run by publisher Katherine Reinhard and editor Robert H. Orenstein, both formerly of The Morning Call. For more information, or to subscribe: armchairlehighvalley.substack.com.
DETROIT - A prominent Lehigh Valley Republican and major supporter of President Trump has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that alleged he refused to pay a cybersecurity company after its audit failed to find fraud in the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania’s Fulton County, court records show.
Bill Bachenberg, co-owner of Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays in North Whitehall Township and president of the National Rifle Association, was a co-defendant in a lawsuit filed in July 2023 by XRVision and its president Yaacov Apelbaum in the U.S. District Court-Eastern District Michigan.
Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit was Stefanie Lambert, an attorney who is facing felony charges for allegedly tampering with voting machines in Michigan, according to The Associated Press.
Lambert has avoided being served with the lawsuit, according to XRVision lawyer John C. Burns, who said in a court filing that she is engaged in “gamemanship” while “thumbing her nose” at his client and the court.
According to a June 18 motion to dismiss the case, Bachenberg agreed to pay $500,000 in exchange for being permanently dropped from the lawsuit.
After an agreement had been reached between the parties, Bachenberg's attorney sought to have the case dismissed against Lambert as well. Burns, calling the request “an about face,” rejected the idea, according to court documents.
The settlement does not address the allegations in the lawsuit.
Lawsuit details
According to the lawsuit:
XRVision was first retained on May 13, 2021, for auditing work related to the 2020 election in Antrim County, Michigan.
It says that Lambert was among multiple attorneys in Michigan who alleged voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election, and that Lambert allegedly earned income from investors across the country who paid her to participate in election fraud investigations and lawsuits.
Bachenberg reportedly agreed to pay for attorney fees and expenses in various election fraud investigations and lawsuits and provided a $1 million line of credit to Lambert’s law firm.
According to a June 18 motion to dismiss the case, Bill Bachenberg agreed to pay $500,000 in exchange for being permanently dropped from the lawsuit.
For every project, Bachenberg paid Lambert’s firm, which in turn paid XRVision for its work, and XRVision met with Bachenberg during this time, providing updates on projects, the lawsuit alleges.
In March 2022, the lawsuit alleges XRVision entered into a $200,000 agreement for a forensic analysis in Fulton County, where Trump easily won but lawmakers, including state Sen. Doug Mastriano who led the “Stop the Steal” effort in the state, requested the county conduct a forensic audit of the Dominion Voting Systems machines.
The lawsuit alleges Lambert and her law firm reportedly represented themselves as representing Fulton County, and that a Pennsylvania court had authorized an audit of the voting system.
The project was later expanded for an additional fee of $350,000. XRVision would not have signed a contract had Bachenberg not agreed to fund it, the suit says.
Bachenberg reportedly reiterated his commitment to pay for the audit during a project status update a month later, the lawsuit says.
During a June 4, 2022, meeting, the lawsuit alleges the plaintiffs informed the defendants that “while the election systems were highly insecure, there was no key evidence that they had been hacked internationally or domestically or were pre-configured to favor one candidate.”
The lawsuit alleges that Lambert and her law firm requested that a report be written to say there were cheat codes in the software evidence of remote/local hacking. The plaintiffs refused to do so.
XRVision’s final report, submitted on or about June 22, 2022, did not find any evidence of election fraud in the 2020 election, the lawsuit says.
The same day, the lawsuit says, the defendants terminated the project and demanded a refund of all money paid so far on the project. The next day, they reversed their position but did not make any more payments, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit asked for $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages plus $550,000 for the cost of the audit.
Other Lehigh Valley ties
Bachenberg wasn’t the only Lehigh Valley resident tied to the Fulton County voting fraud allegations.
Lambert was working in tandem with Bethlehem attorney Tom Carroll to oversee Fulton’s lawsuits to defend its efforts to determine fraud in the 2020 election. Trump won the rural county of 14,500 people with more than 85% of the vote.
Carroll, Fulton Commissioner Randy Bunch and now-former Commissioner Stuart Ulsh were found to be in contempt of court in April 2023 for violating a temporary injunction issued by the state Supreme Court that prevented Fulton from giving third-party access to its voting machines.
Last August, Commonwealth Court President Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer, acting as a special master in the case, issued an order that recommended that Carroll, Bunch and Ulsh be assessed $750,000 for violating the order. They have appealed the sanctions to the state Supreme Court.
In December, the Commonwealth Court ruledagainst Fulton, saying the secretary state has the legal right to prevent counties from giving unauthorized third-party access to voting machines. The county has appealed that decision.
Carroll and Bachenberg, serving as chair, were among the “alternate” electors to the Pennsylvania Electoral College, signing a document on Dec. 14, 2020, pledging their votes to Trump had he prevailed in his lawsuits claiming he, not Biden, had won the state.
Carroll was a delegate to the Republican National Convention last July. Bachenberg was among Trump’s Electoral College electors following his 2024 win in Pennsylvania.
Earlier this year, Bachenberg ran for chair of the state Republican Party but lost in February to state Sen. Greg Rothman.