2 months ago
When nan US head of nationalist intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, testified connected Thursday that her agency seized voting machines from Puerto Rico, she said it was astatine nan petition of nan agency of nan US lawyer successful Puerto Rico. Left unsaid was that nan prosecutor, arsenic nan Guardian previously reported, has been nan halfway of a push by Donald Trump supporters to revive a agelong discredited conspiracy mentation purporting to nexus Venezuela to Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat.
Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, nan conspiracy mentation maintains, controlled physics voting machines worldwide and remotely manipulated results successful 2020 to deprive Trump of a statesmanlike victory.
It was conscionable 1 of nan theories and grievances pushed by Trump and his supporters. Other complaints progressive dormant voters, stolen ballots, mail-in ballot fraud and wide voting by noncitizens.
A judge successful 2023 ruled nan voting instrumentality conspiracy involving Dominion Voting and Venezuela was false, and immoderate news organizations that made nan allegations person retracted them and paid what amounted to hundreds of millions successful defamation claims.
Still, arsenic president, Trump appeared to definitive support for nan theory, moreover days aft he ordered a subject incursion into Venezuela to seizure Maduro this year.
It was successful early 2025 that nan mentation sewage a rehearing successful Trump’s justness department. Two longtime proponents, erstwhile CIA charismatic Gary Berntsen and Venezuela expatriate Martin Rodil, made nan lawsuit for it to nan US lawyer for nan territory of Puerto Rico, W Stephen Muldrow, 3 sources told nan Guardian.
The 3 sources said Berntsen and Rodil besides briefed nan agency of nan head of nationalist intelligence (ODNI) pinch nan aforesaid claims.
A DNI official, successful consequence to questions, emailed nan Guardian that “any accusation provided by Bernsten [sic] and Rodil was done truthful voluntarily”. The charismatic added: “Bernsten [sic] and Rodil did not person an effect connected ODNI’s determination to measure Puerto Rico machines.”
Muldrow’s enquiry into nan Venezuela voting conspiracy underscores really Trump’s justness section is becoming a awesome limb successful nan president’s efforts to rewrite nan history of his 2020 loss.
The DNI charismatic who emailed nan Guardian denied that nan agency was itself investigating nan Venezuela theory, and said: “Despite nan mendacious communicative you’re attempting to manufacture, our efforts were not astir immoderate predetermination successful particular.”
But nan truth that nan unprecedented seizure of nan voting machines by a intelligence agency was requested by a charismatic pushing an enquiry into a fringe mentation astir those machines shows that astatine a minimum location is an overlap successful nan case.
On Thursday, questioned by congressman Jim Himes astir nan seizure of nan voting machines, Gabbard said it was a valid effort to look into predetermination issues. “There were questions astir whether aliases not location were vulnerabilities that a threat could person taken advantage of and that was nan intent of their requesting america to look into those vulnerabilities.”
Muldrow declined to remark for this story.
Berntsen, who has pushed nan conspiracy theories astir Venezuela connected podcasts, messaged nan Guardian: “They weren’t looking for Venezuelan relationship successful exertion successful Puerto Rico. They were looking for Chinese exertion and recovered motortruck loads, I will opportunity thing else. Hopefully you will walk clip to beryllium nan crime and not clip trying to disprove our work. In nan extremity each we person asserted will beryllium proven.”
Gabbard was testifying connected Thursday earlier nan House astir nan yearly worldwide threat assessment. During grounds connected Wednesday earlier nan Senate connected nan aforesaid report, nan legislator Mark Warner of Virginia, vice-chair of nan intelligence committee, noted that for nan first clip since 2017 nan appraisal contained nary mention of adversary attempts to power American elections.
“I don’t judge this omission intends that nan threat has disappeared,” Warner said. “It intends that nan intelligence organization is nary longer being allowed to speak honestly astir it.”
Puerto Rico does not person immoderate electoral votes successful statesmanlike elections. What is existent is that nan US territory’s voting procedures performed poorly successful section races and often failed to transmit results electronically, requiring different methods to transportation voting results.
