DHS political appointees asked CISA to secretly buy and hack a voting machine and send the flaws to the White House, not the vendor, ProPublica reports

A few months into Donald Trump's second term (which began Jan. 20, 2025), political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security asked CISA (the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the federal office that helps states guard election systems) to quietly obtain a voting machine and hack it. ProPublica's account rests on two unnamed former officials. The request. Results were to go to the White House. The machine's maker was not to be told about any flaws found. Career staff pushed back, and the appointees eventually let it drop. One former official said: "My thought was they could keep it in their back pocket to invalidate any [election] results they don't like." The agency since. More than 1,000 CISA employees have been laid off or pushed out in Trump's second term, about one-third of its workforce, ProPublica reports. Per ProPublica, Trump's 2027 budget proposal would cut $700 million more, which could require 900 more layoffs. Still open. ProPublica names neither the appointees nor who at the White House would have received the results, and cites no memo or email.

What normal flaw reporting does that this request skipped:

• If a maker ignores CISA, the flaw can go public 45 days after contact was attempted
• Federal certification hacking tests are run by machine makers and accredited labs, not the White House