WASHINGTON – By late summer, Kurt Olsen’s frustration had reached a breaking point.
President Donald Trump had brought Olsen aboard months before to hunt for proof of foreign meddling in American elections and to reexamine Trump’s 2020 defeat. The former Navy SEAL and attorney, known for disputing election results, was determined to validate the unfounded theory that voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems contained harmful software controlled by Venezuela, according to three individuals with knowledge of the situation.
However, a classified federal examination of Puerto Rico’s Dominion equipment revealed no signs of tampering after officials confiscated the machines in May and had a cybersecurity firm analyze them for several months.
When presented with these findings, Olsen lashed out at the contractor, Virginia-based Mojave Research Inc., in a September communication to Trump, the three sources revealed. In his anger, Olsen claimed the company was obstructing his efforts, working for the “deep state,” and secretly receiving funds from billionaire George Soros, a Democratic supporter frequently targeted by conservatives.
Mojave had been hired by Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to examine potential weaknesses in the machines Puerto Rico utilized during its 2024 gubernatorial race.
Olsen’s effort to undermine Mojave’s credibility has not been previously disclosed. Five individuals familiar with Olsen’s investigation told Reuters that when no evidence emerged from the Puerto Rico machines, the administration broadened its scope to Georgia, where FBI agents confiscated 2020 election ballots, and Arizona, where the FBI has requested voter documentation through subpoenas.
This reporting reveals the extensive authority Trump has given Olsen to utilize federal funds and personnel to pursue debunked election conspiracy theories – even after numerous court decisions rejected similar claims made by Trump supporters following the 2020 election.
Olsen’s investigation has employed personnel and resources from Gabbard’s ODNI, the Justice Department, and the FBI, four sources confirmed. At Trump’s direction, the CIA provided Olsen with “intelligence related to the 2020 election,” a CIA representative told Reuters. The official refused to elaborate on the intelligence specifics.
This investigation occurs as the Trump administration attempts to obtain state voter databases and impose requirements for voter registration and voting systems – powers the U.S. Constitution primarily assigns to states to prevent excessive federal control.
With Trump’s approval ratings declining due to increasing costs and the Iran conflict, Republicans are anticipated to face setbacks in November’s congressional midterm elections. This situation raises alarm among Democrats and election security specialists that the administration is preparing to contest the election’s validity.
White House representative Davis Ingle dismissed the Reuters coverage as “misinformation” from “a few disgruntled leakers,” stating it didn’t accurately represent the government’s efforts to ensure “critical infrastructure across all risk sectors remains secure.” He didn’t address questions about other administration actions to protect future U.S. elections. Olsen didn’t respond to interview requests.
Trump gave serious consideration to Olsen’s allegations about Mojave serving deep-state interests, two sources indicated.
In reaction, the company revealed its financial records to demonstrate it received no Soros funding, according to a September 8 company document to Gabbard reviewed by Reuters.
The document described Olsen’s Soros theory as “patently absurd and ridiculous.”
Olsen recommended ending the company’s contract, which occurred in October. Around the same period, Trump named Olsen as Director of Election Security and Integrity. He operates from the White House and answers directly to the president, two sources confirmed.
DNI representatives stated Mojave’s agreement concluded only because it had finished analyzing voting machines and that Gabbard would continue election security efforts.
“We believe, strongly, that this work has been shelved for reasons that have nothing to do with the mission of ensuring every American can trust our election outcomes,” Mojave responded to inquiries, without providing additional details.
Soros’ Open Society Foundations stated to Reuters that neither he nor the organization had ever collaborated with or hired Mojave Research and had never encountered the company.
MILLER ADVOCATED FOR FBI PARTICIPATION
Trump’s Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller shared Olsen’s disappointment with Mojave’s inability to demonstrate vote tampering in Puerto Rico, two sources reported, revealing previously undisclosed information.
They described an October 3 White House gathering where the Mojave team and Gabbard informed Miller, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt about their technical examination of Puerto Rico machines.
Miller, the sources indicated, advocated for expanding the investigation and including the FBI.
In January, federal agents confiscated ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County during a raid Gabbard attended, which FBI search documents show stemmed from an Olsen referral. In March, the FBI acquired Arizona election documentation through subpoena related to a 2021 Republican-commissioned audit of Maricopa County that verified Trump’s defeat.
Mojave began collaborating with Olsen last spring. Mojave CEO Jason Wareham stated Olsen became obsessed with claims like vote manipulation in Arizona but never provided supporting evidence. “I lost count the number of times Olsen said ‘Maricopa is a crime scene,’” Wareham wrote in the company’s statement to ODNI responding to accusations it was a Soros operation.
Eventually, what Wareham characterized as Olsen’s “cacophony” of speculation and conjecture caused Mojave to cease working with him, he noted in the statement.
Olsen launched his investigation focusing on a thoroughly discredited conspiracy theory – that software from Smartmatic USA Corp, a Florida company established by Venezuelans, has enabled foreign control of machines from Dominion Voting Systems, a separate Canadian-founded company. Dominion equipment was deployed in 27 states in 2024.
The theory stems from Dominion’s 2010 purchase of assets formerly owned by Smartmatic. Despite this transaction, Dominion and Smartmatic functioned as two separate entities. Dominion was acquired last year by Liberty Vote.
Neither Liberty Vote nor Smartmatic provided responses to comment requests.
Despite all his work, Olsen has produced no concrete evidence that Dominion machines were ever compromised, three sources confirmed. Reuters couldn’t determine whether Olsen has since expanded his investigation’s scope.
KNOWN VULNERABILITIES, NOT BREACHES
Mojave, the cybersecurity firm, identified software weaknesses in Puerto Rico’s Dominion machines but found no indication they had been exploited.
Recognizing these vulnerabilities could impact machines throughout the U.S., Mojave suggested a comprehensive plan to address them. The company recommended analyzing additional machines, creating a task force to guide states on software updates, providing financial assistance for implementation, and imposing penalties on non-compliant states. One source believed states would need to start implementing these recommendations in May to finish before November’s midterm elections.
Another source said Mojave discovered problems similar to those identified in a 2021 study by Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer science professor, and a 2022 warning from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). These flaws affected a specific Dominion touchscreen voting model called ImageCast X used in Georgia and three other states in 2020.
Like Mojave, neither Halderman nor CISA discovered evidence that Dominion systems had ever been compromised.
Dominion created fixes for the vulnerabilities CISA identified in 2022. States are responsible for implementing changes to their voting systems. Reuters couldn’t confirm which states had installed the patches.
The three sources said they weren’t aware of any administration efforts to address potential problems Mojave found in Puerto Rico. “The administration has ignored real evidence of severe vulnerabilities,” one source stated. The White House didn’t respond to questions about plans to address report findings. Puerto Rico’s election board didn’t respond to comment requests.
In 2023, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to resolve a defamation lawsuit regarding false vote-rigging allegations involving Smartmatic. In 2024, conservative media company Newsmax agreed to pay $40 million to settle a defamation case filed by Smartmatic, admitting that its claims about the company manipulating the 2020 election were “untrue.”
Professor Halderman told Reuters the concept of Smartmatic software in Dominion machines is “technically incoherent,” since the two companies’ products use different platforms and programming languages.
TAMPA HOTEL GATHERING
Nevertheless, Olsen maintained his theory. On June 19, he met with at least three former Smartmatic employees at a Tampa hotel to discuss it, according to three sources familiar with the meeting.
Also attending this previously unreported session, two sources said, were an FBI agent assigned to ODNI, a computer engineer from Olsen’s team, and Andrew “Mac” Warner, an attorney and political DOJ appointee who has alleged CIA interference in the 2020 election. The DOJ didn’t respond to questions about Warner’s participation.
The former Smartmatic workers provided no proof that Dominion machines were compromised in any election, sources said. Instead, they presented a computer demonstration claiming to show how foreign actors could exploit Dominion equipment using a previously classified hacking tool called “Eternal Blue” developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, two sources reported.
This meeting occurred shortly after ODNI’s May seizure of Dominion machines in Puerto Rico, first reported by Reuters.
In briefings between June and October, Olsen pressured Mojave to search more intensively for suspicious software in the Puerto Rico machines, one source said. When Mojave found no trace of such code, the person said, Olsen repeatedly told the team it was “clearly doing it wrong.”
