US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified on Thursday that her office seized voting machines from Puerto Rico at the request of the US attorney in Puerto Rico. However, the prosecutor, W Stephen Muldrow, has been central to efforts by Donald Trump supporters to revive a discredited conspiracy theory linking Venezuela to Trump's 2020 electoral defeat.
The theory, pushed by Trump and his allies, alleges that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro controlled electronic voting machines worldwide and manipulated results in 2020. A judge ruled this claim false in 2023, and news organizations have paid hundreds of millions in defamation settlements. Despite this, Trump expressed support for the theory, even after ordering a military incursion into Venezuela this year.
In early 2025, former CIA official Gary Berntsen and Venezuela expatriate Martin Rodil briefed Muldrow and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on the theory. An ODNI official denied that Berntsen and Rodil influenced the decision to assess Puerto Rico's machines, stating the effort was not about any specific election. However, the seizure request from a prosecutor pursuing a fringe theory highlights an overlap.
During a House hearing, Gabbard defended the seizure as a valid effort to examine election vulnerabilities. Berntsen claimed the investigation found Chinese technology in Puerto Rico, not a Venezuelan connection. Meanwhile, Senator Mark Warner noted that the annual threat assessment omitted mention of foreign election interference for the first time since 2017, suggesting the intelligence community is being silenced.
Puerto Rico has no electoral votes in presidential elections, and its voting procedures have faced issues with electronic transmission of results.
