NRA leader agreed to pay $500,000 to settle lawsuit tied to 2020 election, records show

Craig Mauger, The Detroit News on Jun 19, 2025

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DETROIT — Bill Bachenberg, a supporter of President Donald Trump and a leader within the National Rifle Association, agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a Michigan lawsuit that alleged he refused to compensate a cybersecurity expert who failed to uncover fraud in the 2020 election, according to a court filing.

A dismissal motion submitted in Michigan's Eastern U.S. District Court Wednesday revealed the deal between Bachenberg and Yaacov Apelbaum, who was the president and chief technology officer of the firm XRVision, Ltd.

Apelbaum originally sued Bachenberg, a Pennsylvania resident, and lawyer Stefanie Lambert, a Michigan resident, in July 2023. Apelbaum's suit said Bachenberg and Lambert had become "furious" and declined to pay him after he authored a report in 2022 that "did not find any evidence of election fraud in the 2020 election."

At the time, some supporters of Trump, a Republican, were searching for evidence in a bid to prove there was widespread fraud that influenced the outcome of the 2020 race, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

In the new motion, Apelbaum attorney John Burns asked a federal judge to dismiss Apelbaum's suit against Bachenberg because of a settlement agreement, which, according to emails, was reached on June 11.

"Defendant Bachenberg has fully satisfied the settlement agreement by payment of the agreed-upon sum of $500,000," Burns' motion said.

Emails filed with the motion showed Thomas Siver, a lawyer for Bachenberg, sent Burns a proposed dismissal order on June 11.

"This court finds that Defendant Bill Bachenberg has satisfied the $500,00 (sic) demand, and this case is now closed and dismissed with prejudice," the proposed order said.

Bachenberg, a skeet-shooting entrepreneur and Republican donor, had provided Lambert a $1 million line of credit for her investigations into the 2020 election, according to Apelbaum's initial lawsuit.

Bachenberg was elected president of the National Rifle Association in April, according to the organization.

Lambert is facing two sets of criminal charges in Michigan. In Oakland County, a special prosecutor alleged that Lambert was part of a scheme to improperly obtain and examine voting equipment used in Michigan's 2020 election. In Hillsdale County, Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said Lambert and a township clerk mishandled voter data. Lambert has pleaded not guilty.

In the new motion in the civil lawsuit, Burns wrote that after the settlement agreement was reached, Bachenberg tried to renegotiate the deal to also resolve Apelbaum's claims against Lambert. However, Burns said, the deal was only about Bachenberg.

The requested dismissal "applies solely to defendant Bachenberg and claims against other defendants remain unaffected," Burns wrote.

Siver, a lawyer for Bachenberg, didn't immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Bachenberg served as one of Trump's presidential electors in Pennsylvania in 2024.

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—Staff Writer Robert Snell contributed.

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