By Jana Winter, Jonathan Landay and Erin Banco
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump will give a national address on Thursday night about newly declassified intelligence on investigations into U.S. elections and what the White House says are voting machine vulnerabilities, an administration official said.
The Republican president could use his televised speech at 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday (0100 GMT on Friday) to again press his false claim that he lost his 2020 reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden due to massive fraud.
Numerous courts, ballot audits and his first-term Justice Department found no evidence of such fraud, including vote-machine rigging. The federal cybersecurity watchdog joined other federal, state and local officials in declaring the vote “the most secure in American history.”
Asked if his speech would address election machine integrity, Trump told reporters on Tuesday, “It will concern that subject” among others, but gave no details.
Propelled by Trump’s repeated claims that U.S. elections are “rigged,” the administration has for over a year sought to increase federal oversight of election administration and reshape the way Americans vote — an effort that legal experts say would take power away from states in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
With Republican control of Congress at stake in the November midterm elections, Democrats and some election security experts have expressed concerns that the Trump administration plans to interfere in those contests.
By casting the 2020 election as illegitimate, Trump is laying the groundwork to challenge Republican losses and undermine Democrats if they win back power in Congress in November, multiple election experts have said.
The administration official, who discussed the plans on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that Trump will discuss in his speech national elections and what White House officials view as voting machine flaws that could permit foreign cyber intrusion.
The administration official said Trump would discuss newly declassified intelligence related to 2020.
MS Now first reported Trump’s speech.
PULTE AUTHORIZED TO DECLASSIFY INTELLIGENCE
Election officials say they are confident that machines are adequately secure and no evidence has been found of foreign intrusions that changed results of past elections.
A forensic analysis submitted last year by Mojave Research, a contractor hired by former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, found flaws in voting machines seized in Puerto Rico but no evidence of hacking.
Gabbard, whose resignation was effective last month, also produced her own report that outlined significant vulnerabilities in voting machines and further safeguards, such as updating their software, that could be implemented, three sources familiar with the matter said.
The White House, however, has delayed releasing the report, and Trump has persisted in trying to prove that his 2020 defeat was due to fraud.
He appointed Bill Pulte, director of the federal mortgage regulator, last month as Gabbard’s interim replacement and said he had authorized Pulte to declassify documents related to the 2020 vote.
WHITE HOUSE TASK FORCE
The White House also recently formed a task force to investigate elements of the 2020 election, three sources familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
One source said journalist John Solomon, a former Fox News contributor, is working on the effort.
Solomon, the source said, has requested access to files related to an analysis that dissented from a U.S. intelligence assessment in 2021 that found no indications that a foreign actor had tried or succeeded in altering “any technical aspect” of the 2020 vote.
The unclassified version of the assessment judged that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized parts of his government to conduct influence operations aimed at boosting the vote for Trump and undermining public confidence in the U.S. electoral process.
China considered conducting influence operations designed to change the election outcome but decided against doing so, while Iran pursued a “multi-pronged” covert influence campaign to undercut Trump’s candidacy, the assessment said.
The report was drafted by the National Intelligence Council, the top body of U.S. intelligence analysts, along with the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the State Department’s intelligence bureau and the National Security Agency.
(Reporting by Jana Winter, Erin Banco and Jonathan Landay; additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Susan Heavey and Ismail Shakil; editing by Michelle Nichols, Caitlin Webber, Don Durfee and Cynthia Osterman)
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