PONTIAC, Mich. — A high-profile criminal trial over allegations that supporters of former President Donald Trump tampered with tabulators used in Michigan's 2020 election won't take place until after the 2024 election because of a letter that first surfaced three years ago.

On Monday, the trial of lawyer Stefanie Lambert, who was charged with four felonies in August 2023, including conspiracy to improperly possess voting machines, was scheduled to begin in Oakland County Circuit Court at 8:30 a.m. with jury selection.

But because of an emergency motion filed by Lambert's defense attorney Dan Hartman, Judge Jeffery Matis decided to adjourn the trial until Dec. 2.

“I didn’t become a judge to do the easy thing," Matis said. "I became a judge to do the right thing.”

Lambert's lawyer, Dan Hartman, said on Monday morning he had become aware late Sunday night of a May 20, 2021, letter from Jonathan Brater, Michigan's elections director, to Karen Brewster, the clerk of Cheboygan County. The letter was a "game-changer" for Lambert's case, Hartman contended in court.

However, the letter wasn't a secret and was the subject of news stories in May 2021.

Hartman said he found out about the letter after it was included in a separate court filing by Republican former attorney general candidate Matt DePerno, who is also facing charges for allegedly participating with Lambert in the tabulator conspiracy.

Lambert, DePerno and others were allegedly involved in a scheme to convince clerks to hand over their voting equipment after the 2020 election and to transport the items to properties in Oakland County for analysis.

In the May 2021 letter, Brater told Brewster that her county commission couldn't require her to provide access to her voting equipment for a so-called "forensic audit."

"The Michigan election law entrusts clerks with choosing and maintaining their voting systems and does not provide any authority for county commissions to take control of this equipment," Brater wrote.

Lambert, DePerno or others they were working with allegedly got access to five tabulators through local clerks. Hartman argued the Brater letter was "exculpatory evidence," should have been provided by the prosecution and showed it was the clerks' "prerogative" to release equipment.

"The Brater letter was not produced in discovery in this case, the grand jury proceeding or any ancillary proceeding," Hartman wrote in his emergency motion "In short, it was hidden."

Yet, in the same letter, Brater also said "only election officials, licensed vendors or accredited voting system test laboratories should be granted access to voting equipment."

The people who allegedly accessed the tabulators through the efforts of Lambert and DePerno — self-described cyber security experts who were promoting unproven claims of widespread election fraud — fell within none of three groups.

Matis said Hartman discovering the letter last night set up a "challenging situation" for him because Brater is going to be one of the prosecution's key witnesses. Matis said he wanted to provide time to address the letter before the trial and suggested it might lead to a defense motion to quash the charges.

DJ Hilson, Muskegon County's prosecutor and the special prosecutor who announced the charges against Lambert last year, said he didn't believe the letter was exculpatory. It might even end up being part of his case in court, Hilson told reporters.

"It shows what our theory of the case is, which is a private citizen doesn't have the right to walk into a clerk's office anywhere in the state of Michigan and ask for a voting tabulator. End of story," Hilson said.

DePerno's charges are currently pending in district court in Oakland County.

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