2026-04-23T20:52:00.678Z / 路透社
华盛顿4月23日电（路透社）——去年夏末，库尔特·奥尔森的耐心已耗尽。
数月前，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普聘请奥尔森寻找美国选举受外国干预的证据，并重新调查特朗普2020年大选失利一事。据三位知情人士透露，作为知名的选举否认论者、律师及前海军海豹突击队员，奥尔森旨在证实那个早已被证伪的阴谋论：多米尼恩投票系统公司的投票机被植入了由委内瑞拉控制的恶意代码。
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但去年5月美国政府扣押波多黎各的多米尼恩投票机，并委托一家网络安全承包商进行数月排查后，一项针对波多黎各该类投票机的秘密联邦调查未发现任何黑客入侵痕迹。
三位知情人士称，面对调查结果，奥尔森在9月给特朗普的消息中指责了这家承包商——总部位于弗吉尼亚州的莫哈韦研究公司。奥尔森怒不可遏，指控该公司阻碍他的工作、为“深层政府”效力，并暗中从民主党捐助者、右翼频繁抨击的目标乔治·索罗斯那里收取资金。
莫哈韦是由特朗普的国家情报总监图尔西·加巴德聘请的，目的是排查波多黎各2024年州长选举所使用的投票机是否存在漏洞。
奥尔森诋毁莫哈韦的行动此前从未被报道过。五位熟悉奥尔森调查情况的消息人士告诉路透社，由于在波多黎各的投票机中未发现证据，政府将调查范围扩大到了佐治亚州——联邦调查局在此扣押了2020年大选的选票——以及亚利桑那州——联邦调查局已在此传唤选民记录。
此次报道还首次揭示了特朗普给予奥尔森的广泛权限：使用联邦资金和人员追查早已被证伪的选举舞弊阴谋论——尽管2020大选后已有数十起法院裁决驳回了特朗普盟友提出的类似指控。
四位消息人士称，奥尔森的调查动用了加巴德领导的国家情报总监办公室、司法部及联邦调查局的人员和资源。中央情报局一名官员告诉路透社，应特朗普的要求，中情局允许奥尔森查阅“与2020年大选相关的情报”，但该官员拒绝透露情报细节。
此次调查开展之际，特朗普政府正试图获取州选民名单，并强制制定选民登记和投票系统规则——而美国宪法将此类权力主要赋予各州，以限制联邦权力集中。
随着特朗普的支持率因物价上涨和伊朗局势下滑而走低，共和党预计将在11月的国会中期选举中遭遇失利。这引发了民主党和选举诚信专家的担忧：政府正在为质疑选举结果的合法性铺垫基础。
4月20日路透社/益普索的一项民调显示，特朗普对选举诚信的质疑已在美国公众中获得广泛支持。
白宫发言人戴维斯·英格尔称路透社的报道是“几名不满的泄密者散布的虚假信息”，并补充说报道并未全面反映政府为确保“所有风险领域的关键基础设施保持安全”所做的努力。他未就政府为确保即将到来的美国大选安全还采取了哪些其他措施回答提问。奥尔森未回应采访请求。
两位消息人士称，特朗普认真对待了奥尔森有关莫哈韦为深层政府效力的指控。
作为回应，莫哈韦在9月8日发给加巴德的一份公司声明中公开了账目，证明其从未从索罗斯处收取资金，路透社看到了这份声明。声明称奥尔森的索罗斯理论“显然荒谬可笑”。
奥尔森主张终止该公司的合同，该合同于10月终止。大约在同一时间，特朗普任命奥尔森为选举安全与诚信主任。两位消息人士称，奥尔森在白宫办公，直接向总统汇报工作。
国家情报总监办公室的官员表示，莫哈韦的合同终止仅仅是因为其完成了投票机分析工作，加巴德将继续推进选举安全事务。
“我们坚信，这项工作被搁置的原因与确保每位美国人都能信任我们选举结果的使命毫无关系，”莫哈韦在回应记者提问时表示，但未详细说明。
索罗斯的开放社会基金会在给路透社的一份声明中称，无论是索罗斯本人还是该组织，都从未与莫哈韦研究公司合作或签订过合同，甚至从未听说过这家公司。
米勒推动联邦调查局介入
两位消息人士称，特朗普的国土安全顾问斯蒂芬·米勒与奥尔森一样，对莫哈韦未能证明波多黎各存在选票操纵一事感到沮丧，并透露了此前未被报道的细节。
他们描述了10月3日的一次白宫会议，莫哈韦团队和加巴德向米勒、白宫办公厅主任苏西·怀尔斯以及白宫发言人卡罗琳·利夫特汇报了他们对美国领土波多黎各的投票机所做的法医分析。
消息人士称，米勒推动扩大调查范围，并让联邦调查局介入。
今年1月，联邦调查局特工在佐治亚州富尔顿县突袭扣押了选票，加巴德也在场，联邦调查局的搜查令显示，此次行动源于奥尔森的举报。3月，联邦调查局通过传票获取了亚利桑那州的选举记录，这些记录与2021年共和党主导的马里科帕县审计有关，该审计证实了特朗普的失利。
莫哈韦去年春天开始与奥尔森合作。莫哈韦首席执行官杰森·韦勒汉姆表示，奥尔森执着于亚利桑那州的选票操纵指控，但从未提供任何具体证据。“奥尔森说‘马里科帕就是犯罪现场’的次数我都数不清了，”韦勒汉姆在公司发给国家情报总监办公室的声明中如此说道，以回应有关莫哈韦是索罗斯傀儡的指控。
韦勒汉姆在声明中称，奥尔森的“大量谣言和观点”最终导致莫哈韦停止与他合作。
奥尔森的调查最初聚焦于一个早已被彻底驳倒的阴谋论：总部位于佛罗里达州、由委内瑞拉人创立的Smartmatic美国公司的代码，被用于操纵另一家加拿大成立的公司多米尼恩投票系统的投票机。2024年，27个州使用了多米尼恩的投票机。
该阴谋论源于多米尼恩2010年收购了此前属于Smartmatic的资产。尽管有这笔资产交易，多米尼恩和Smartmatic仍是两家独立运营的公司。多米尼恩去年被一家名为Liberty Vote的公司收购。
Liberty Vote和Smartmatic均未回应置评请求。
三位消息人士称，奥尔森未能提供任何明确证据证明多米尼恩投票机曾被操纵。路透社无法确认奥尔森此后是否扩大了调查范围。
早已存在的漏洞，而非黑客攻击
这家网络安全承包商莫哈韦在波多黎各的多米尼恩投票机中发现了软件漏洞，但未发现任何被利用的证据。
莫哈韦认为这些漏洞可能影响美国其他地区的投票机，因此提出了解决方案：对更多投票机进行分析、组建工作组为各州提供软件补丁建议、为该工作提供资金支持，并对拒绝执行的州处以罚款。一位消息人士称，如果要在11月中期选举前完成整改，各州需在5月开始落实这些建议。
另一位消息人士称，莫哈韦发现的漏洞与密歇根大学计算机科学教授亚历克斯·哈德曼2021年的分析报告，以及美国网络安全和基础设施安全局（CISA）2022年的 advisory 中指出的问题类似。这些漏洞影响了一种名为ImageCast X的特定类型多米尼恩触屏投票系统，该系统2020年在佐治亚州和其他三个州投入使用。
与莫哈韦一样，哈德曼和CISA均未发现多米尼恩系统曾被黑客攻击的证据。
多米尼恩已于2022年开发出补丁，以修复CISA指出的漏洞。是否实施投票系统改造由各州自行决定。路透社无法确认哪些州已落实了该补丁。
三位消息人士称，他们不知道政府为解决莫哈韦在波多黎各发现的潜在问题采取了任何行动。其中一位消息人士表示：“政府忽视了严重漏洞的真实证据。”白宫未回应是否计划落实报告中指出的任何问题的提问。波多黎各选举委员会未回应置评请求。
2023年，福克斯新闻同意向多米尼恩支付7.875亿美元，以和解一起涉及Smartmatic的虚假选举舞弊指控的诽谤案。2024年，保守媒体 outlet 纽smax同意支付4000万美元，和解Smartmatic提起的诽谤诉讼，承认其有关该公司操纵2020年大选的说法“不属实”。
哈德曼教授告诉路透社，多米尼恩投票机中存在Smartmatic代码的说法“在技术上站不住脚”，因为两家公司的产品基于不同的平台和计算机语言开发。
坦帕酒店的会面
但奥尔森仍坚持该阴谋论。三位知情人士称，6月19日，他在坦帕的一家酒店与至少三名前Smartmatic员工会面讨论此事，此次会面此前从未被报道过。
两位消息人士称，出席此次会面的还有一名被派往国家情报总监办公室的联邦调查局特工、奥尔森团队的一名计算机工程师，以及安德鲁·“麦克”·沃纳——一名律师，同时也是司法部的政治任命人员，他曾声称中央情报局操纵了2020年大选。司法部未回应沃纳是否出席此次会面的提问。
消息人士称，这些前Smartmatic员工未提供任何证据证明多米尼恩投票机在任何选举中被黑客攻击。相反，他们展示了一个计算机演示，声称可以展示外国行为者如何利用一种曾属于高度机密的黑客工具“永恒之蓝”来操纵多米尼恩设备——该工具由美国国家安全局开发。
此次会面是在国家情报总监办公室5月扣押波多黎各的多米尼恩投票机后不久举行的，此事首次由路透社报道。
一位消息人士称，在6月至10月的一系列简报中，奥尔森推动莫哈韦更仔细地排查波多黎各投票机中的可疑代码。当莫哈韦未发现任何代码痕迹时，奥尔森多次告诉团队“显然你们的方法错了”。
乔纳森·兰迪、艾琳·班科和菲尔·斯图尔特为本文提供报道；墨西哥城的莎拉·基诺西安补充报道；弗兰克·杰克·丹尼尔编辑
Trump, aides chase vote-rigging claims even after latest probe finds nothing
2026-04-23T20:52:00.678Z / Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) – Late last summer, Kurt Olsen’s patience had run out.
U.S. President Donald Trump had enlisted Olsen months earlier to seek evidence of foreign interference in U.S. elections and re-investigate Trump’s 2020 loss. A prominent election-denier, attorney and former Navy SEAL, Olsen aimed to prove the discredited conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems machines had been infected with malicious code controlled by Venezuela, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
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But a secret federal investigation of Puerto Rico’s Dominion machines had found no trace of hacking after the administration seized the machines in May and directed a cybersecurity contractor to scour them for months.
Confronted with the results, Olsen turned on the contractor, Virginia-based Mojave Research Inc. in a September message to Trump, the three sources said. Infuriated, Olsen accused the firm of blocking his work, serving the “deep state” and secretly taking money from billionaire George Soros, a Democratic donor and frequent right-wing target, they said.
Mojave had been brought on by Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to search for vulnerabilities in the machines Puerto Rico used during its 2024 gubernatorial elections.
Olsen’s campaign to discredit Mojave has not previously been reported. Five sources familiar with Olsen’s probe told Reuters that the failure to find evidence in the Puerto Rico machines led the administration to expand the investigation to Georgia, where the FBI seized 2020 election ballots, and Arizona, where the FBI has subpoenaed voter records.
The reporting also sheds new light on the broad leeway Trump has granted Olsen to use federal money and staff to chase discredited election-rigging theories – despite dozens of court rulings dismissing similar allegations by Trump allies after the 2020 vote.
Olsen’s investigation has used staff and resources from Gabbard’s ODNI, the Justice Department and the FBI, four of the sources said. At Trump’s request, the CIA gave Olsen access to “intelligence related to the 2020 election,” a CIA official told Reuters. The official declined to detail the intelligence.
The probe comes as the Trump administration seeks to access state voter lists and to mandate rules for voter registration and voting systems – authorities the U.S. Constitution broadly grants to states to limit the concentration of federal power.
With Trump’s popularity dropping over rising prices and the Iran war, Republicans are expected to sustain losses in the November congressional midterms. That raises concerns among Democrats and election-integrity experts that the administration is laying groundwork to challenge the vote’s legitimacy.
The doubt Trump has cast on election integrity has gained broad traction with the American public, an April 20 Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle called the Reuters reporting “misinformation” from a “few disgruntled leakers,” adding it did not fully reflect the government’s effort to ensure “critical infrastructure across all risk sectors remains secure.” He did not answer questions about what else the administration was doing to secure upcoming U.S. elections. Olsen did not respond to requests for an interview.
Trump took Olsen’s deep-state allegations about Mojave seriously, two of the sources said.
In response, the company opened its books to show it took no money from Soros, according to a September 8 company statement to Gabbard that was seen by Reuters.
The statement called Olsen’s Soros theory “patently absurd and ridiculous.”
Olsen advocated that the company’s work be terminated, which happened in October. Around that time, Trump appointed Olsen as Director of Election Security and Integrity. He works from the White House and reports to the president, the two sources said.
DNI officials said Mojave’s contract ended only because it had completed its voting machine analysis and that Gabbard would continue working on election security.
“We believe, strongly, that this work has been shelved for reasons that have nothing to do with the mission of ensuring every American can trust our election outcomes,” Mojave said in response to questions, without elaborating.
Soros’ Open Society Foundations said in a statement to Reuters that neither he nor the organization had ever worked with or contracted Mojave Research and had never heard of the firm.
MILLER PUSHED FOR FBI INVOLVEMENT
Trump’s Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller shared Olsen’s frustration at Mojave’s failure to prove vote manipulation in Puerto Rico, according to two of the sources, describing previously unreported details.
They described an October 3 White House meeting where the Mojave team and Gabbard briefed Miller, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt on their forensic analysis of the machines in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.
Miller, the sources said, pushed to expand the probe and involve the FBI.
In January, agents seized ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County in a raid attended by Gabbard that the FBI’s search warrant shows originated from an Olsen referral. In March, the FBI obtained via subpoena Arizona election records connected to a 2021, Republican‑ordered audit of Maricopa County that confirmed Trump’s loss.
Mojave started working with Olsen last spring. Mojave CEO Jason Wareham said Olsen fixated on allegations such as vote rigging in Arizona but never detailed any evidence. “I lost count the number of times Olsen said ‘Maricopa is a crime scene,’” Wareham said in the statement the company wrote to ODNI in response to the allegations it was a Soros front.
Eventually, what Wareham described as Olsen’s “cacophony” of rumor and opinion led Mojave to stop working with him, he said in the statement.
Olsen initiated his probe focusing on a firmly debunked conspiracy theory – that code from Smartmatic USA Corp, a Florida-based company founded by Venezuelans, has allowed foreign manipulation of machines from Dominion Voting Systems, a separate company founded in Canada. Dominion machines were used in 27 states in 2024.
The theory draws on Dominion’s 2010 acquisition of assets that previously belonged to Smartmatic. Despite the asset deal, Dominion and Smartmatic operated as two independent companies. Dominion was bought last year by a company called Liberty Vote.
Neither Liberty Vote nor Smartmatic responded to comment requests.
For all his efforts, Olsen has provided no clear evidence Dominion machines were ever manipulated, the three sources said. Reuters could not establish whether Olsen has since broadened the focus of his investigation.
LONG-KNOWN FLAWS, NOT HACKS
Mojave, the cybersecurity contractor, detected software flaws in the Puerto Rico Dominion machines, but no evidence they had been exploited.
Believing the vulnerabilities could affect machines elsewhere in the U.S., Mojave recommended a plan to address them. The company advised analysis of more machines, a task force to advise states on software patches, financial aid for that effort and penalties for states that refused. One source said it believed states would have to begin implementing the recommendations in May if they were to be completed by the November midterms.
Another of the sources said Mojave found issues similar to those highlighted in a 2021 analysis by Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer-science professor, and a 2022 advisory from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA. Those flaws affected a certain type of Dominion touchscreen voting system known as ImageCast X that was deployed in Georgia and three other states in 2020.
Like Mojave, neither Halderman nor CISA found evidence that the Dominion system had ever been hacked.
Dominion developed patches to address the vulnerabilities CISA identified in 2022. It is up to states to implement changes to their voting systems. Reuters could not establish which states had implemented the patches.
The three sources said they were not aware of any effort by the administration to address potential issues Mojave identified in Puerto Rico. “The administration has ignored real evidence of severe vulnerabilities,” one of them said. The White House did not respond to a question about whether it planned to address anything flagged in the report. Puerto Rico’s election board did not respond to comment requests.
In 2023, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to settle a defamation case about the false vote-rigging claims involving Smartmatic. In 2024, conservative media outlet Newsmax agreed to pay $40 million to settle a defamation suit brought by Smartmatic, acknowledging that its claims the company had manipulated the 2020 election were “untrue.”
Halderman, the professor, told Reuters the idea of Smartmatic code in Dominion machines is “technically incoherent,” because products of the two companies are built on different platforms with different computer languages.
MEETING AT A TAMPA HOTEL
Olsen, however, stuck with the theory. On June 19, he met at least three former Smartmatic personnel at a Tampa hotel to discuss it, according to the three sources with knowledge of the session.
Also present at the meeting, which has not been previously reported, two of the sources said, was an FBI agent detailed to ODNI, a computer engineer from Olsen’s team and Andrew “Mac” Warner, an attorney and political appointee to the DOJ, who has claimed the CIA rigged the 2020 election. The DOJ did not respond to a question about Warner’s attendance.
The former Smartmatic employees offered no evidence that Dominion machines were hacked in any election, the sources said. Instead, they presented a computerized demonstration that claimed to show how a foreign actor could exploit Dominion equipment using a once highly classified hacking tool called “Eternal Blue” that was developed by the code-breaking U.S. National Security Agency, according to two of the sources.
The meeting followed shortly after ODNI’s May seizure of Dominion machines in Puerto Rico, which was first reported by Reuters.
In a series of briefings between June and October, Olsen pushed Mojave to look harder for suspicious code in the Puerto Rico machines, one of the sources said. When Mojave failed to find any trace of the code, the person said, Olsen repeatedly told the team it was “clearly doing it wrong.”
Reporting by Jonathan Landay, Erin Banco and Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Sarah Kinosian in Mexico City; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel