Stefanie Lambert, a lawyer known for her pro-Trump stance, was released from a Washington, DC jail on Tuesday. The release was granted on the condition that she immediately returns to Michigan to surrender to authorities there, where a warrant has been issued in relation to her indictment on election-tampering charges.
DC Superior Court Magistrate Judge Heide Herrmann released Lambert on a $10,000 bond, which she will be required to pay if she fails to promptly turn herself in to Michigan authorities. Lambert was in handcuffs and ankle restraints during the brief hearing in Washington, DC.
The hearing followed Lambert’s unexpected arrest at the federal courthouse in DC on Monday. She was taken into custody by US marshals immediately after participating in a two-hour hearing in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against her client, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, regarding his 2020-related election lies.
Lambert was arrested due to a warrant in Michigan, issued after her failure to appear at two recent hearings in her separate criminal case. She was indicted last year in connection with an election system breach, one of several incidents in battleground states where Trump supporters attempted to substantiate their voter-fraud theories.
During Lambert’s hearing on Tuesday, her attorney, Kevin Irving, stated that there was some confusion between Lambert and her attorney in Michigan, leading to the bench warrant being issued after she failed to show up at two hearings in her criminal case. Irving assured the court that Lambert would head to Michigan immediately after being released.
Despite the prosecutor’s preference to keep Lambert detained, the judge released her with a warning that she could face repeated arrests if she did not promptly surrender in Michigan.
At a separate defamation hearing on Monday, Lambert admitted to providing Dominion emails to Sheriff Dar Leaf of Barry County, Michigan, a promoter of pro-Trump conspiracy theories. Lambert, Leaf, and their allies have claimed that the leaked emails implicate Dominion in an election-rigging scandal.
Dominion has vehemently denied these allegations. A spokesperson told CNN on Monday that the company has a small staff presence in Serbia, but any allegation that Dominion employees interfered with any election is categorically false.
The federal magistrate judge overseeing parts of the defamation case signed an order on Tuesday requiring Lambert and Byrne to cease sharing, distributing, providing access to, or discussing any discovery material they received as part of the Dominion litigation.
Since former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, the voting technology company has battled a continuous stream of disinformation. Its lawyers filed defamation suits against several Trump allies who championed these baseless claims, and right-wing news outlets where they found a home, including Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN.
Some of Lambert’s fellow election deniers reacted to her arrest with outrage, arguing that it reinforces their long-debunked view that the 2020 results were tainted. The Election Integrity Force, a right-wing group promoting baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, posted copies of the leaked Dominion files on its website and claimed without evidence that Lambert’s arrest was a calculated effort to intimidate and silence a prominent voice in the movement for electoral reform.