The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) attempted to acquire a voting machine but was blocked by internal opposition within the Department of Homeland Security.
Posted by Ask Dr. Drew, Checked
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Ask Dr. DrewOct 21, 2026
ProPublica's October 2026 investigation, which many outlets repeated, reports that DHS political appointees asked CISA to secretly acquire and hack a voting machine, and that CISA career staff resisted by calling it impossible until the appointees stopped pressing.
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What was said
… Navy flotilla on its way to Caracas. That was all that was driven by this understanding that Venezuela has actually been it's a Cuban-Venezuelan issue but parts of the government are fighting like hell against this being exposed, so much so that when the CISA, which is a branch of the DHS, tried to just acquire a machine for themselves, they got told, Oh, this is, like, shocking. No, you're not allowed to touch them. Inside the DHS, people fought it and blocked it. Now, you can go on eBay and buy one of these machines. It's not like you're buying a nuclear reactor, but the government, inside the government, there's all this pushback. They do not want this to come to light. I would ask two questions. …
Ask Dr. Drew · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. ProPublica reports that political appointees at DHS asked CISA to procure a voting machine, examine it, and report findings to the White House, according to two former administration officials.[1]
Supports. CISA employees repeatedly told the political appointees the request was impossible, and the appointees eventually stopped pressing CISA, so the operation was abandoned.[1][2][3]
Context. The sources describe the request as made and resisted, but none reports that CISA actually began acquiring a machine, so the word 'attempted' is a loose fit for what happened.[1][2]
Context. Most of the later coverage (including the Substack, IBTimes, Audacy and Ground News pieces) repeats the same ProPublica account and adds no independent record, so corroboration is essentially a single investigation.[4][5][6][7][8]
Sources
8 sources: 1 tier 2, 7 not rated
- 1Trump Appointees Asked a Federal Cybersecurity Agency to Secretly Acquire a Voting Machine — and Hack Itpropublica.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports, context
- 2Trump Administration Asked Cybersecurity Agency to Covertly ...securityboulevard.com · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 3Trump’s Department of Homeland Security Secretly Ordered ...futurism.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 4Trump Has Dismantled Federal Election Cybersecurity ...michaeldsellers.substack.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 5Trump Appointees Wanted Federal Cyber Agency to Secretly Hack ...ibtimes.co.uk · not rated · cited for: context
- 6Why Did DHS Want a Voting Machine Hacked and the Manufacturer Kept in the Dark?thepoliticalwillreport.substack.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 7Trump appointees tried to hack voting machine: report - Audacyaudacy.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 8Trump Appointees Asked a Federal Cybersecurity Agency ...ground.news · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security requested that CISA secretly acquire and hack a voting machine at the beginning of President Trump's second term.True
- A report claims that political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security requested that cybersecurity agents secretly acquire and hack a voting machine.True
- Political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security requested that the agency secretly acquire and hack a voting machine a few months into President Donald Trump’s second term.True
- CISA employees were unable to fulfill the request to hack a voting machine because the agents capable of doing so had been laid off by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency initiative.True
- The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have conducted investigations into the 2020 election and voter fraud.True