The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Thursday the declassification and immediate publication of a series of intelligence documents that, he claimed, contain background on an alleged interference operation driven by China in the U.S. electoral processes since 2020, the year he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The president stated that the files include classified information about vulnerabilities in the electoral infrastructure and background that, in his view, were not publicly known in recent years.
“Tonight I announce the declassification and immediate publication of crucial intelligence information, which reveals alarming vulnerabilities in our electoral infrastructure,” Trump said during a speech addressed to the nation.
According to the head of state, one of the main documents states that Chinese authorities allegedly illicitly accessed a massive database with records of U.S. voters, which he described as the largest known electoral information leak to date.
He added the accusation that intelligence agencies have known about this background for years but did not communicate it in a timely manner.
“The People’s Republic of China carried out what is considered the largest electoral data leak in history, resulting in the illicit acquisition by China of 220 million U.S. voter records,” he asserted.
Trump also claimed that part of the declassified material would point to an alleged cover-up within the U.S. intelligence agencies themselves.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agencies began to learn about the leak of voter records in 2020, when they discovered that tens of millions of voter data in 18 states had been bought, stolen, or hacked by China,” he said.
In that context, he stated that officials allegedly deliberately minimized the magnitude of the alleged foreign interference detected during the electoral process.
“Members of the ‘Deep State’ work in our Intelligence agency to actively suppress and minimize information about the extent of China’s sinister electoral interference,” the president said.
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Another focus of the documentation, according to Trump, addresses the vulnerabilities of electronic voting machines, vote counting systems, and databases used by electoral authorities, which, he claimed, would remain exposed to cyberattacks and manipulations.
“Our government has long known that these machines are extremely vulnerable to attacks. This is a cyber threat aimed at the very heart of our democracy,” he added.
The U.S. president also assured that the files contain background on alleged irregularities in voter registration, including non-citizens registered to vote and alleged cases of fraud that, he said, had been hidden by various authorities.
“Even when significant evidence of fraud has been detected, it has been hidden and covered up,” he said, adding that the Department of Homeland Security had identified about 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote in federal elections.
In light of this background, Trump reported that he instructed FBI Director Kash Patel to conduct a thorough investigation of the declassified documents and coordinate actions with the Department of Justice to pursue possible criminal liabilities.
He also indicated that the Department of Homeland Security will notify the states whose voter records may have been compromised and will review the rolls to remove those who do not meet legal requirements.
Finally, the president used the announcement to insist on the approval of the so-called SAVE America Act, an initiative that seeks to require proof of citizenship and photo identification to vote, as well as restrict mail-in voting to specific situations.
“Addressing this electoral security crisis requires Congress to pass the SAVE America Act,” Trump said, before concluding with a direct call to lawmakers: “The only reason not to do it is that you want to cheat.”
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