By Alexandra Ulmer

(Reuters) – A former Republican minor leader in the Colorado legislature was among those who received sensitive voting data that had been leaked by a county official. The information was being used to support an activist’s claim of President Donald Trump’s stolen election claims. This was disclosed Monday by the secretary-of-state’s office.

This revelation shows that the Elbert County breach of voter data was much more extensive than originally thought. Colorado Secretary of State has begun investigating this case. This is just one of at most nine attempts to hack voting-system data across the United States. At minimum eight of them involved Republican officials and activists looking to discredit Democratic President Joe Biden.

Dallas Schroeder was previously the clerk for Elbert County. He testified that he transferred voting data from Elbert County to two hard drives. The drives were then given to two lawyers. Schroeder responded to an investigation by the secretary-of-state and revealed that John Case was one of the recipients. He refused to identify the other.

According to Annie Orloff, secretary of state spokesperson, Schroeder gave data to Case and two additional lawyers. On Monday, the attorneys would release their Affidavits.

Joseph Stengel (a former Republican Minority Leader and state lawmaker) was one of those involved. Stengel, who is based in Denver is an ex-law partner at Case and represents clerk Schroeder.

Ric Morgan is an Elbert County attorney and also the County’s Veteran Service Officer.

Reached via Reuters, Stengel refused to answer any questions regarding his involvement in the election system compromise. Morgan didn’t respond to numerous calls or emails.

Schroeder declined to comment on requests. In legal filings, he stated that he felt he was required to keep records about the 2020 election.

Schroeder’s lawyer Case said last week that Schroeder acted legally. Case also argued that data on the hard drives should not be classified as public records. Case claimed that although the copy contains ballot images and “no voter data”, it does not contain any voter information. The information may have an “immense historic value,” he said.

He stated that Dallas Schroeder had not violated any law or electoral rule.

When Case made his statement, Jena Griswold, Colorado Secretary-of-State told Reuters that Schroeder violated regulations prohibiting unqualified persons from having access to voting equipment. Schroeder also broke rules that prohibited the use of “removable media.” This refers to the equipment Schroeder used for imaging the voting systems.

Griswold’s Office stated that it is still examining data on hard drives.

Schroeder stated that Shawn Smith (a Trump supporter) gave him instructions for how to copy data from the system.

The U.S. Election Integrity Plan has been pressing Colorado’s local clerks to look into unfounded claims of 2020 election fraud. According to interviews with Colorado County Clerks Association, USEIP also had unauthorized access the voting data that enables it to conduct forensic audits.