Trump’s Top DHS Officials Issue Surprise Statement Refuting Claims of Election Fraud

Top officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a joint statement Thursday rebuking President Donald Trump’s claims that he was the victim of widespread electoral corruption and irregularities, declaring that last week’s presidential election “was the most secure in American history” and “there is no evidence” of voter fraud or the subversion of any voting systems.

The statement was issued by a high-ranking committee of officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – a part of the DHS signed into existence by Trump in 2018 – as well as several other top election officials, and comes as a stunning refutation of the president’s claims that his loss in the election was a result of stolen votes and other irregularities.

“There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” said the statement.

“While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too,” the statement added. “When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections.”

Officials also listed the numerous ways in which elections with closely-contested elections could vet ballots, recheck their counts, and identify and correct any mistakes or errors.

In the nine days since Election Day, President Trump has made various claims casting suspicion on the results and alleging that that the election was stolen from him through a conspiracy involving big tech, local government officials, the mainstream media, and his political opponents in both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Trump has redoubled his accusation since former Vice President Joe Biden was projected as president-elect by various news agencies on Saturday after he managed to clinch key swing states. He currently holds 290 electoral votes, far more than the 270 needed to secure the presidency. Trump, in the meantime, only has 217 electoral votes.

The statement from Trump administration officials comes after Bryan Ware, the assistant cybersecurity director at CISA, submitted his resignation at the request of the White House earlier on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Trump had already been enraged by Ware and his senior colleagues at CISA after they refused to parrot his claims that mail-in voting was a clear avenue to fraud. Other cybersecurity officials had informed colleagues that they were likely to be placed on a blacklist of administration officials who would be terminated following the election, two senior officials told New York Times.

The list reportedly includes officials such as CISA director Christopher C. Krebs and FBI director Christopher Wray, who had publicly disagreed with the president’s claim that the investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 election was “a witch hunt” and pledged to resign if Trump demanded he commit any illegal acts.

Since last week, the president has reportedly been enraged at CISA moves to debunk misinformation about the electoral process through a “rumor control” website that directly refutes claims made by the Trump campaign and Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani – including claims that votes were being cast on behalf of dead citizens, or that election results were hacked or compromised.

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