U.S. Spy Chief’s Office Investigated Voting Machines In Puerto Rico | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) – A group working for President Donald Trump’s spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, final spring led an investigation into Puerto Rico’s voting machines, stated Gabbard’s workplace and three sources accustomed to the beforehand unreported occasions.

The sources stated the purpose was to work with the FBI to analyze claims that Venezuela had hacked voting machines in Puerto Rico, however added the probe didn’t produce any clear proof of Venezuelan interference within the U.S. territory’s elections.

Gabbard’s workplace, in a press release to Reuters, confirmed the May investigation however denied a hyperlink to Venezuela, saying its focus was on vulnerabilities within the island’s digital voting techniques. Her group took an unspecified variety of Puerto Rico’s voting machines and extra copies of information from the machines as a part of its investigation, a spokesperson for Gabbard’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated.

Her workplace stated the taking of voting machines and information was “standard practice in forensics analysis.”

Noting related voting infrastructure elsewhere within the United States, it added: “ODNI found extremely concerning cyber security and operational deployment practices that pose a significant risk to U.S. elections.”

Venezuela’s authorities didn’t reply to a request for remark.

ODNI stated that some safety gaps in voting machines utilized in Puerto Rico stemmed from their use of weak mobile expertise and that software program flaws existed that might give hackers entry deep into very important electoral techniques.

The Puerto Rico operation seemed to be a part of an effort by Trump administration officers to pursue unproven allegations of voting fraud, the sources stated. The preoccupation with voter fraud dates to Trump’s reelection loss in 2020 and has not abated, stated the sources, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate private operations.

Gabbard’s look at an FBI raid of an election facility in Fulton County, Georgia, final week highlights her direct involvement in these points. Last week’s FBI raid in Georgia prompted alarm amongst some nationwide safety consultants nervous that Gabbard and the ODNI have overstepped their authority in investigating a delicate home matter.

Gabbard was not bodily current in the course of the operation in Puerto Rico, her workplace stated, although her company took on a coordinating function within the investigation.

U.S. officers concerned within the Georgia investigation sought information associated to the 2020 presidential election that Republican Trump has falsely claimed he misplaced in opposition to Democrat Joe Biden due to widespread fraud.

Domestic election safety issues are usually dealt with by legislation enforcement businesses, say present and former U.S. officers, not the nation’s intelligence companies.

Gabbard’s workplace stated it had the authority to hold out the investigation.

“Given ODNI’s broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security and our known work on understanding vulnerabilities to foreign and other malign interference, ODNI conducted an examination of electronic voting systems used in Puerto Rico’s elections,” the spokesperson stated.

Reuters sources stated it was the unproven allegation of Venezuelan involvement in voting irregularities within the U.S. territory’s elections that had raised questions on attainable overseas interference – one thing Gabbard had the authorized authority to analyze.

The Caribbean island’s residents are U.S. residents however should not have voting illustration in Congress and can’t vote in presidential basic elections.

Challenging the denials of Gabbard’s workplace about Venezuela’s function, the three sources advised Reuters that the FBI group concerned within the Puerto Rico operation was probing the idea that Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro’s authorities had hacked U.S. voting, an allegation that has sturdy help amongst some Trump supporters however for which no proof has surfaced publicly.

The operation in Puerto Rico concerned the FBI area workplace in southern Florida whose brokers had been coordinating with a bunch overseen by Gabbard investigating threats to election safety, stated two of the sources accustomed to the operation.

This group included U.S. nationwide safety officers, legislation enforcement brokers and authorities contractors, the sources stated.

Gabbard’s workplace stated the United States Attorney in Puerto Rico, his group of homeland safety investigations brokers, and an FBI supervisory particular agent “facilitated the voluntary turnover of electronic voting hardware and software to ODNI for analysis.”

The U.S. army seized Maduro in Caracas in January, eradicating him from energy, and introduced him to New York to face drug trafficking prices, which he denies. Puerto Rico’s elections have had irregularities however no credible proof has emerged to help allegations of Venezuelan assaults to affect voting there.

“We have had widely reported problems in election administration. But they are all attributable to incompetence and corruption, not foreign interference,” stated Pablo Jose Hernandez Rivera, a Democrat elected in 2024 to signify Puerto Rico within the U.S. House of Representatives in a non-voting capability.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Erin Banco and Jonathan Landay; enhancing by Diane Craft)