By Nathan Layne
(Reuters) - Los Angeles prosecutors have dismissed charges against the head of a Michigan election software company in a case that right-wing groups say shows proof of voting system vulnerabilities, citing "potential bias" in the investigation.
Eugene Yu, chief executive of Konnech Inc, was charged last month with two felonies for allegedly violating the company's contract with Los Angeles County by transferring election workers' personal information to servers in China.
Conservative organizations and election deniers have cited the prosecution as vindication of their warnings about the vulnerability of U.S. elections, including hacking by China and other foreign adversaries.
The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, which brought the charges, has acknowledged starting the investigation due to a complaint from Gregg Phillips of True the Vote, a Texas nonprofit and prominent purveyor of baseless voter-fraud claims.
On Wednesday, the District Attorney's Office said it sought to dismiss the case, citing an unspecified bias. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted the dismissal without prejudice, meaning charges can be refiled in future.
"We are concerned about both the pace of the investigation and the potential bias in the presentation and investigation of the evidence," the office said in a statement. "As a result, we have decided to ask the court to dismiss the current case, and alert the public in order to ensure transparency."
The dismissal comes a little over a week after a federal judge in Houston ordered Phillips and Catherine Englebrecht of True the Vote jailed for contempt of court for failing to identify a "confidential FBI informant" pertinent to a defamation lawsuit that Konnech filed against True the Vote in September.
Phillips and Englebrecht appealed the order and have since been released.
The defamation case targets Phillips and Engelbrecht for a series of claims, including that Konnech was holding in China sensitive personal information on 1.8 million poll workers, and that Yu, who immigrated to the United States decades ago, was a Chinese operative. Yu and Konnech have denied those allegations.
"Mr Yu's good name was tarnished by false narratives from fringe conspiracy theorists who bragged about enlisting Los Angeles prosecutors to further their political agenda," Gary Lincenberg, a lawyer for Yu in the criminal case, said in a statement. "Mr Yu is an innocent man."
The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office indicated it had not ruled out refiling criminal charges after a review of the evidence. It said it had assembled a new team of investigators with cyber security expertise and an independent expert to review the "immense volume of digital data" it has collected in the case.
It said it could take months to assess that evidence and determine whether criminal charges are warranted.