White House task force reportedly seeking new ‘evidence’ of election fraud: report

White House task force reportedly seeking new ‘evidence’ of election fraud: report Thousands of documents are reportedly being collected from the CIA, FBI, Justice Department, National Security Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments President Donald Trump said he authorized his controversial acting spy chief to declassify records related to the 2020 election — hours after a report revealed that a new White House task force was gathering the information from U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump told reporters he'd informed acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, "You can declassify whatever you want," according to Reuters. When asked if that included records related to the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden, Trump said, "I told him you could do it, it's fair. You got to ask him." Pulte, who’s also director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has been accused by Democratic lawmakers of using the agency’s mortgage records to fuel investigations of perceived Trump enemies, including Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, The Office of National Director of Intelligence didn't immediately return an inquiry from The Independent. Trump's remarks came after NBC News reported that the White House had created a new task force that's gathering intelligence documents to help Trump push new claims of alleged election fraud ahead of the November midterms. Thousands of pages of records are being collected from the CIA, FBI, Justice Department, National Security Agency and the ODNI, according to Mediaite. The task force has reportedly been encouraged to limit redactions, regardless of whether it would identify government officials or other individuals. In a statement to The Independent, a White House spokesperson didn’t deny the NBC News report but called Trump “the most transparent President in history” and said he was "totally committed to sharing as much information with the public as possible.” Trump has repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was "rigged" against him, despite more than 60 court cases that failed to prove his allegations. Trump's then-attorney general, Bill Barr, also said a Justice Department probe didn't show "fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome," and he later acknowledged telling Trump that "all this stuff was bulls***." Members of the White House task force reportedly include conservative journalist John Solomon, founder of the Just the News website, who recently said on the Real America's Voice network that he'd be working as an "unpaid government employee" for the "next couple of months." "I have an opportunity to help the government identify some documents, some secrets, some things you should know about when it comes to weaponization, election integrity, other things," he said. In 2020, 14 of Solomon's opinion columns on Ukraine for The Hill were faulted by the news outlet after an internal review prompted by criticism of his work by State Department officials during Trump's first impeachment hearings. Among its findings, The Hill said Solomon failed to disclose that he used his own lawyers as sources, and didn't reveal that other sources had been indicted or were under investigation, The Associated Press reported at the time. Retired Army Col. Derek Harvey, who was fired from the National Security Council by then-National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster during Trump's first term, is also reportedly serving on the White House Task Force. In 2022, Harvey was elected a county commissioner in Washington County, Maryland, but he resigned that post in February, citing "new business opportunities that better align with the needs of his family and long-term professional goals," according to the county's official website. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments