Washington Post: Democrats demand answers on Trump administration disbanding election security team
By Colby Itkowitz
Democratic lawmakers sent a letter Thursday to leaders at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) questioning why a team that works to identify foreign interference in U.S. elections was put on administrative leave last week.
The ranking Democrats on the Senate and House Administration committees, Sen. Alex Padilla (California) and Rep. Joseph Morelle (New York), wrote that they are concerned about CISA’s commitment to election-related work given that foreign actors continue to use misinformation to try to undermine elections and manipulate American voters.
“Understanding the trends in misinformation and providing state and local officials with the tools to counter it is critical to protecting and supporting the effective and secure administration of our elections,” they wrote.
Among the questions they asked the CISA leaders was whether the White House or U.S. DOGE Service, led by Elon Musk, had given them direction about employees who work on election-related issues.
The elimination of the CISA misinformation team came as Attorney General Pam Bondi dissolved an FBI task force, formed in response to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, that had worked to uncover covert efforts by Russia, China, Iran and other foreign adversaries to manipulate U.S. voters.
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