The Justice Department had obtained a warrant, approved by a federal judge, to conduct the search, according to the court filing. Liddell’s challenge followed others by prominent Trump supporters and advisers who had their own phones seized in investigations related to Jan. 6, 2021, and the 2020 election. Challenges to such seizures typically fail to get a court to intervene. Liddell has not been charged with any crime. Federal authorities in Colorado are investigating the hacking of a county’s election system as part of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to subpoena documents obtained by CNN. The records, recently obtained by CNN, showed the Justice Department gathering evidence related to three possible crimes in Mesa County, Colorado: identity theft, intentional damage to a protected computer and/or conspiracy to commit them. The investigation appears to be looking at potential crimes separately from the Jan. 6, 2021, federal criminal investigation into the attempted election tampering by Trump supporters in late 2020 and early 2021. CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
