The Office of the Director of National Intelligence obtained voting machines from Puerto Rico and investigated them for security vulnerabilities, the office said in a statement to CNN Wednesday.
This extraordinary move occurred amid Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s broader search for voter fraud at the request of President Donald Trump, who falsely claimed that the 2020 election was rigged despite numerous court rulings and audits denying the claim. Gabbard was present as FBI agents executed a search warrant in Fulton County, Georgia, last week related to the 2020 election.
ODNI claimed in its statement that it found “very concerning” cyber security and operational deployment practices with voting machines in Puerto Rico but did not provide evidence.
The US attorney in Puerto Rico, Homeland Security Investigations agents and an FBI supervisory special agent “facilitated the voluntary turnover of electronic voting hardware and software to ODNI for analysis,” an ODNI spokesman said. It is not clear exactly when the agency received and studied the voting machines.
In justifying the probe into the voting equipment, the ODNI cited “publicly reported statements related to elections in Puerto Rico alleging systemic discrepancies and anomalies in their electronic voting systems.”
David Becker, the executive director of a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works with election officials, told CNN that voting machines are subject to regular testing and a strict chain of custody. The machines count the paper votes that are verified and count them again to confirm the machine count. Those are all security controls that have proven to be effective, he said.
The director of national intelligence coordinates intelligence from about 17 other organizations in the US intelligence community. It is unprecedented for ODNI to play such a hands-on role in election infrastructure, former intelligence officials and election experts told CNN.
“This is way beyond what ODNI has the authority or expertise to do,” a former senior US intelligence official who worked on election security told CNN Wednesday in response to ODNI’s statement. “This is an amateur hour.”
ODNI’s activity in Puerto Rico “seems intended to intimidate and undermine election officials, along with the constant threats of prosecutions, and the repeated lies about our election system,” Becker told CNN.
Reuters first reported the ODNI probe in Puerto Rico and said the activity took place last spring.
It was unclear if and when ODNI would release more public information about its probe of voting equipment in Puerto Rico. The agency is “currently coordinating with our partners across the US government to provide the findings from our inquiry to agencies that can take actions to improve the security of our system,” the ODNI spokesperson said.
CNN has sought comment from election officials in Puerto Rico.
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