Voting Machine Seizure Linked to US Attorney in Puerto Rico
When the US director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, testified on Thursday that her office seized voting machines from Puerto Rico, she stated that this action was taken at the request of the office of the US attorney in Puerto Rico. However, she did not mention that the prosecutor involved, as reported by , has been central to efforts by supporters of former President Donald Trump to revive a long-discredited conspiracy theory alleging a connection between Venezuela and Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat.
Background of the Venezuela Voting Machine Conspiracy Theory
The conspiracy theory claims that Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro controlled electronic voting machines worldwide and remotely manipulated the 2020 election results to prevent Trump from winning the presidency. This theory was among several allegations and grievances promoted by Trump and his supporters, which also included claims of dead voters, stolen ballots, mail-in ballot fraud, and mass voting by noncitizens.
In 2023, a judge ruled against the voting machine conspiracy theory involving Dominion Voting and Venezuela. Several news organizations that propagated these allegations have since retracted their claims and paid substantial sums in defamation settlements, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Despite the discrediting of the theory, Trump appeared to endorse it during his presidency, even days after ordering a military incursion into Venezuela aimed at capturing Maduro earlier this year.
Renewed Interest in the Theory Within the Justice Department
In early 2025, the conspiracy theory received renewed attention within Trump’s justice department. Two longtime proponents of the theory, former CIA official Gary Berntsen and Venezuela expatriate Martin Rodil, presented their case to the US attorney for the district of Puerto Rico, W. Stephen Muldrow, according to three sources who spoke to .
These sources also indicated that Berntsen and Rodil briefed the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI) with the same claims. In response to inquiries, a national intelligence official emailed stating that “any information provided by Bernsten [sic] and Rodil was done so voluntarily” and added,
“Bernsten [sic] and Rodil did not have an impact on ODNI’s decision to assess Puerto Rico machines.”
Muldrow’s investigation into the Venezuela voting conspiracy highlights the role of Trump’s justice department as a significant instrument in the former president’s ongoing efforts to challenge the legitimacy of his 2020 election loss.
Official Denials and Overlap in the Case
The DNI official who communicated with denied that the office was conducting an investigation into the Venezuela theory itself, stating,
“Despite the false narrative you’re attempting to manufacture, our efforts were not about any election in particular.”
Nonetheless, the fact that the unprecedented seizure of voting machines by a national intelligence agency was initiated at the request of a prosecutor pursuing an inquiry into a fringe theory about those machines indicates at least some overlap between the cases.
Congressional Testimony and Responses
During Thursday’s testimony before the House regarding the annual worldwide threat assessment, Gabbard was questioned by Congressman Jim Himes about the voting machine seizure. She defended the action as a legitimate effort to investigate election-related vulnerabilities, stating,
“There were questions about whether or not there were vulnerabilities that a threat could have taken advantage of and that was the purpose of their requesting us to look into those vulnerabilities.”
Muldrow declined to comment for this story.
Gary Berntsen, who has promoted the Venezuela conspiracy theories on podcasts, messaged , asserting,
“They weren’t looking for Venezuelan connection in technology in Puerto Rico. They were looking for Chinese technology and found truck loads, I will say nothing else. Hopefully you will spend time to prove the crime and not time trying to disprove our work. In the end all we have asserted will be proven.”
Context of the Intelligence Community’s Assessment
On Wednesday, during testimony before the Senate on the same worldwide threat assessment report, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, vice-chair of the intelligence committee, noted that for the first time since 2017, the assessment contained no mention of adversary attempts to influence American elections.
Warner commented,
“I don’t believe this omission means that the threat has disappeared. It means that the intelligence community is no longer being allowed to speak honestly about it.”
Puerto Rico’s Electoral Context
It is important to note that Puerto Rico does not have any electoral votes in presidential elections. The territory’s voting procedures are conducted in local races and often involve electronic tabulation of results. These results frequently require additional methods to transfer voting data.
