Trump Goon’s Crackpot Bid to Derail Election Exposed
The Daily Beast • • world
Key Points:
- Kurt Olsen, a White House adviser and Trump’s election-security czar, led an initiative to investigate unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, including a conspiracy theory that Venezuela hacked voting machines to favor Joe Biden.
- The plan aimed to remove Dominion Voting Systems machines from half of U.S. states before the 2024 midterms, replacing them with hand-counted paper ballots, a move supported by Trump but criticized by experts for increasing risks of fraud and errors.
- The effort progressed to the point where Commerce Department officials explored legal grounds for seizing the machines, but ultimately failed due to lack of evidence to substantiate the claims.
- Key figures involved included Paul McNamara and Brian Sikma, with the initiative tied to the broader "Stop the Steal" movement; meanwhile, Fox News settled a $787.5 million lawsuit with Dominion over false election fraud claims.
- The White House dismissed the Reuters report as misinformation, attributing it to selectively leaked information.