On an unknown date, sometime in the spring of 2025, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard spearheaded an investigation into Puerto Rico’s voting machines to explore evidence-free claims of Venezuelan manipulation of the machines.
Saving face, Gabbard rejected the conspiracy theory related to Venezuela was the basis of the investigation. She claimed that she sought to investigate “vulnerabilities” in the voting systems. Unknown amounts of voting machines and data connected to them were seized.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) concluded that security gaps existed, as seen in “cyber security and operational deployment practices.” However, they did not find evidence of voter fraud or of foreign interference.
There is a long history of Trump’s allies lying about Venezuelan interference in the 2020 Presidential election. Conspiracy theorist and Trump attorney Sidney Powell falsely claimed that Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic technology software were designed by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez to rig elections.
