Dismantling of federal efforts to monitor election interference creates opening for foreign meddling

Election ballot with yes or no question. concept. Voting, government referendum and amendment
Critics of Donald Trump's administration say U.S. foreign adversaries could find it easier to meddle in American elections.

When a suspicious video of ballots being ripped up in Pennsylvania gained attention on social media last October, federal agencies responded quickly and called it out as Russian disinformation.

On Election Day in November, bomb threats to polling places in numerous states caused relatively few disruptions to voting. It’s one of the many scenarios covered by the nation’s cybersecurity agency in its outreach to state and local officials.

The future of that assistance is now uncertain.

Last week, new Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded an FBI task force focused on investigating foreign influence operations, including those that target U.S. elections. She also limited the scope of enforcement actions on people who do not disclose lobbying on behalf of foreign governments. She wrote that the changes would “free resources to address more pressing priorities, and end risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion.”

The Donald Trump administration’s downsizing and disbanding of federal agencies has hit efforts that improve election security and monitor foreign influence. That could create gaps for America’s enemies to exploit the next time the country holds a major election.

“Our adversaries are upping their game every day,” said former Department of Homeland Security cyber chief Suzanne Spaulding. “I’m worried that we are, at the same time, tearing down our defenses.”

The Trump administration also has made sweeping cuts at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees the nation’s critical infrastructure, including election systems. On Saturday, a senior DHS official said mass firings of federal employees in probationary status had resulted in cuts of more than 130 employees at CISA. It was not immediately clear whether those included 17 employees who had worked on election security who were placed on leave last week.

The DHS official on Saturday also said CISA was pausing all election security activities pending a review of their funding, activities and personnel. The agency was ending its involvement in a voluntary program that shared information about cyber defenses with state and local election officials.

Larry Norden, an election expert with the Brennan Center for Justice, said the actions send a message that securing U.S. elections against interference from countries such as Russia, China, and Iran is no longer a federal government priority.

“I think we would be naive to think that the bad guys don’t get that message, too, that there’s going to be less of a cop on the beat to protect our elections,” he said.

State and local governments run elections in the U.S., but federal support in recent years has helped them protect against escalating threats, coordinate with other election offices on security and expose foreign influence campaigns designed to undermine voter confidence.

Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan recalled two times when the federal government was the first to be aware of a threat toward his office. In 2023, federal officials warned of a suspicious envelope heading to its election facilities early enough that it could be intercepted. In 2024, the federal government notified him of an emailed bomb threat to his office before he was aware of it.

“We can’t be the eyes and ears to see everything,” Logan said. “We’re focused on administering the election.”

There are certain elements of that work that only the FBI can do, said Darren Linvill, co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, which investigated malign influence campaigns in 2024. He said the FBI’s task force “will be missed in 2026 and beyond.”

The top Democrats on the Senate and House committees overseeing election legislation wrote a letter last week to CISA’s top leaders to express “grave concern” over the changes and request more information about how those changes will affect election security.

Trump has sought to stop the government’s tracking of online misinformation, something he has likened to censorship targeting conservatives. Though Trump signed the bill to create CISA in 2018, he fired its director, Christopher Krebs, following the 2020 election that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Krebs had vouched for the security of the vote as Trump continued to claim it was rigged.

Biden’s administration embraced government monitoring of foreign influence and frequently alerted the public to such operations in 2024. An FBI investigation also led to the indictment of three Iranian operatives for hacking into Trump’s campaign.

The FBI has worked closely with CISA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in coordinating intelligence on foreign influence operations, efforts led by ODNI’s Foreign Malign Influence Center.

Trump’s new director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has not shared her plans for the center, which was authorized by Congress and is set to expire at the agency’s discretion in 2028. She said in a statement after taking her oath of office Wednesday that she wants to “end the weaponization and politicization” of the intelligence community.

There is no indication the Justice Department plans to stop investigating espionage-related crimes related to election interference. But the gutting of a task force dedicated to that mission has an impact all the same, said David Salvo, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy.

“I’m sure there’s still officers at the FBI who are probably watching this activity in some respect,” he said. “But I’m not convinced that the political masters care all that much, and it’s possible that those officers will be told to stop that work entirely.”

Some Republicans have praised the task force’s removal. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who leads the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on the social platform X that the unit was “highly politicized” and shutting it down was the “right move.”

In an emailed statement, the FBI acknowledged the task force had been disbanded but said it would not comment on “specific personnel actions.”

As for CISA, whose broader mission is to protect America’s critical infrastructure, the future is unclear. Trump’s Republican allies have criticized the agency for its work to combat misinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 election. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said during her Senate confirmation hearing that it had strayed “far off mission.”

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed in an email last week that employees were on leave and said the agency was evaluating “how it has executed its election security mission with a particular focus on any work related to mis-, dis-, and malinformation.” On Saturday, DHS said that portion of its review was complete and the agency was taking “appropriate actions” regarding those employees.

Amid the uncertainty at the federal level, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said he was urging the Legislature to fund election security programs. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said that while Trump can restructure the federal government as he wants, his state depends on CISA’s election services.

“I’m not too concerned with which agency’s providing them, but we need to have them,” he said.

___

Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

Associated Press


5 comments

  • PeterH

    February 16, 2025 at 2:27 pm

    Without Federal Government, particularly the FBI oversight in election interference, we’re leaving the oversight job to the National Media with the assistance of leakers. Obviously, Pam Bondi is simply a puppet of Donald Trump and Project 2025. Beware of ANY AND ALL information coming from this administration.

    • TJC

      February 16, 2025 at 3:22 pm

      Puppet, as in puppet show, perhaps?
      Shitshow 2, the Sequel, features lots of improbable characters (Hegseth, Kennedy Jr., Bondi, etc.) saying lots of predictable lines that all sound like they come out of the brain of the main character, Donald Trump. This is important to the President, who wants the members of his administration to represent him as if he were God and they were all created in his image, but it makes for a boring sequel where all the characters lack depth, including the main character.
      Of course, fleshing out interesting characters isn’t the only way a story can be interesting. Where interesting characters are absent, plot can make it interesting. But the plot here is too obvious: Main character Donald Trump has no intention of stepping down from the Presidency, ever. And everything he is doing now is preparing the way for the day when that becomes perfectly clear, even to the dullest of viewers.

    • Earl Pitts American

      February 17, 2025 at 6:57 am

      Good Morn ‘Ting America,
      The above artical is an A. P. [@SS Press] piece of yellow journalism.
      EARL WILL PREACH ON:
      “Beware of ANY AND ALL information coming from the @SS Press [FKA The Associated Press]”, said Earl.
      Thank you America,
      Earl Pitts American

  • Paul Passarelli

    February 16, 2025 at 2:50 pm

    More Democrat Party smokescreen!
    The Federal oversight of polling places & elections is minimal to non-existent. Sure, they swoop in after the fact and issue fines for innocent transgressions — as a former officer of the Libertarian Party of Connecticut, I can testify to this.

    History has prooooven [sic] that the claims of “Russian Disinformation” were false, known to be false, and still allowed out as they were thought to be helpful to Democrats.

    As for bomb threats at polling places, that’s another red herring.

    • TJC

      February 18, 2025 at 11:08 am

      Facts have proven Russian election interference, but you will never let a few facts get in the way of your wishes. Dream on, PP.

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, Liam Fineout, A.G. Gancarski, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Andrew Powell, Jesse Scheckner, Janelle Taylor, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: Peterschorsch@floridapolitics.com
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704