An election denier who tried to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss is facing scrutiny over his new role in the Justice Department as part of a team investigating the president’s foes.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The Justice Department has placed Kurt Olsen at the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, where the Trump ally is part of a probe into a “grand conspiracy.” He was previously overseeing election security at the White House, where he made a referral to the Justice Department that resulted in an FBI search of an election hub near Atlanta in January.The group Free Speech For People, a nonprofit founded in 2010 that focuses on free and fair elections and rooting out corruption in government, sent 11 Democratic lawmakers a letter Tuesday morning urging them to seek Olsen’s removal from the Justice Department.It wrote that Olsen had “driven efforts to access election systems and documents in Fulton County, Georgia, and Puerto Rico.”The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Elections are run by the states.But Trump has recently suggested that federal officials take over some state elections based on accusations of voter fraud he has levied without evidence.
The president ended an almost hourlong interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker last week after she asked for evidence to back up his statement that the 2020 election was rigged.Free Speech For People wrote in its letter that court records “suggest that Mr.
Olsen has access to copies of election system software that were obtained through schemes to compromise voting equipment and take copies of the systems’ software that occurred from 2020 to 2022.” Olsen got involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election after watching video clips online, and eventually was part of an effort led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton t...