Trump appointees sought secret voting machine hack ahead of midterms, ProPublica reports
Political appointees in US President Donald Trump's administration asked a federal cybersecurity agency to secretly obtain and hack a voting machine, then share its findings with the White House, according to a ProPublica investigation published on Oct. 19.
The request came several months into Trump's second term and was made by appointees at the Department of Homeland Security to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), two former administration officials familiar with the matter told ProPublica.
The appointees wanted CISA to acquire a voting machine, examine it for vulnerabilities and report its findings for transmission to the White House.
Agency employees were also instructed not to notify the machine's manufacturer about any vulnerabilities they discovered, contrary to standard cybersecurity practices.
The request alarmed career CISA staff, who feared the information could be used for political purposes.
“My thought was they could keep it in their back pocket to invalidate any [election] results they don't like,” one former official told ProPublica.
The official's comments reflected a concern about how the information might be used, rather than evidence that the administration had decided to challenge specific election results.
CISA employees repeatedly resisted the request, saying the agency could not carry it out. Some of the specialists who might have been able to conduct the operation had already been laid off under Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency initiative, according to the investigation.
The political appointees eventually abandoned the proposal. ProPublica reported no evidence that the requested operation took place.
The investigation also found that Trump's administration had laid off or pushed out more than 1,000 CISA employees, roughly one-third of its workforce. The administration's proposed 2027 budget would cut the agency's funding by more than $700 million, potentially leading to another 900 job losses.
Several state election officials told ProPublica that CISA had failed to provide its usual security assistance during preparations for the November midterm elections.
The agency published an election security plan on Sept. 24, but some state officials said it came too late to restore previously established cooperation.
A White House spokesperson defended the administration's election security record, saying Trump had done more than any other president to ensure free and fair elections. DHS and CISA did not respond to ProPublica's detailed questions.