Kurt Olsen spent years spreading false claims about President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss. Critics question why he is now in charge of medium-term security
President Trump’s repeated claims about 2020 election fraud have been proven false
Legal experts have questioned the motives behind the FBI’s recent seizure of election documents in Georgia, a state that President Donald Trump lost in 2020.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has tapped one of the lawyers who worked to overturn the 2020 election to serve as his administration’s “chief election security and integrity officer,” as he grows increasingly interested in giving the federal government control of the November 2026 election.
That’s Kurt Olsen, a conservative lawyer who is facing ethics complaints and legal sanctions for spreading “patently false” claims about President Trump’s 2020 loss to former President Joe Biden and Kali Lake’s 2022 loss in the Arizona gubernatorial race.
Olsen, a 63-year-old former Navy SEAL, secretly joined President Trump’s White House as a special government employee in October. Since then, he has worked with law enforcement and intelligence officials to reexamine Trump’s debunked claims about 2020, including the loss of Georgia to voter fraud and that states used the coronavirus to “cheat” mail-in voting.
These claims were investigated and rejected by the courts and election authorities at the time. Trump lost 61 of 62 cases in court before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to disrupt the election counting process.
In a phone conversation on January 2, 2021, President Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to change Georgia’s official vote count and deliver the Electoral College results. Raffensperger refused, telling Trump: “The data you have is wrong.”
Members of the Trump administration, including then-Attorney General Bill Barr, told Trump at the time that his statements about the election were false.
Now, critics such as Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) are concerned that Mr. Olsen is trying to promote these past election fraud claims to help Mr. Trump gain more control in future elections.
The man behind the Georgia FBI raid
Recently released court documents revealed that the FBI investigation that led to the Jan. 28 attack on a Georgia election office was launched based on a criminal referral to Olsen’s own election office.
Historically, White House officials have taken pains to avoid the appearance that they are involved in or directing criminal investigations conducted by the Justice Department or the FBI.
But in this case, FBI agents who filed an affidavit asking a judge to approve a search warrant highlighted Olsen’s role in the case and some of his claims about 2020.
“Following the November 3, 2020 presidential election, there were numerous allegations of election fraud related to the voting process and vote counting in Fulton County, Georgia,” FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans’ affidavit states.
“This warrant application is part of the FBI’s criminal investigation into whether the misconduct was an intentional act in violation of federal criminal law,” he wrote.
“The FBI’s criminal investigation stems from a referral from Kurt Olsen, the president’s appointee to the Director of Election Security and Integrity,” Evans added.
Mr. Olsen did not respond to a request for comment left on a cell phone registered to his name. The White House praised his work.
“The president has some of the most talented and qualified people working on his team, including Kurt,” White House press secretary Davis Ingle told USA TODAY on February 16, in response to a question about Olsen’s role. “President Trump remains focused on ensuring the safety and security of America’s elections.”
Mr. Engle also referred questions about Mr. Olsen’s activities to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which has been assisting with the review of the 2020 election.
But some election security advocates say Olsen’s actions are at fault.
“It’s inappropriate, to say the least, for the same reasons the court upheld his false claims about past elections,” said Pamela Smith, president and CEO of Verified Voting, a group that promotes the responsible use of technology in election administration.
Leading lawyers in “Stop the Steal”
Mr. Olsen spent much of his career practicing private law until another lawyer, William Olson, urged Mr. Trump to hire Mr. Olsen for his efforts to overturn his defeat in a key battleground state. According to a Dec. 28, 2020 memo obtained by the New York Times, written by William Olson to Trump and recording a phone call with the president over Christmas, Olson recommended that the Justice Department be involved in his campaign’s legal challenges and that then-acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen be fired.
Mr. Olsen, who worked with Mr. Rosen at a prominent Washington, D.C., law firm, wrote that Mr. Trump “will be taken seriously.”
Olson also said he is working with Texas officials to sue Pennsylvania to overturn Biden’s victory in the state over its use of mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Kurt is a former Navy SEAL who volunteered and worked tirelessly for weeks on the paperwork for the lawsuit filed by the state of Texas,” Olson wrote. “Besides, this person is definitely someone you can’t intimidate.”
“You need a lawyer who is literally on your side, principled, constitutionally educated, good, tough, and committed to both you and the Constitution,” Olson wrote. “Then Kurt will bring in some other competent, principled lawyers to help you.”
Olson, who USA TODAY reported leaving with his law firm colleagues on Feb. 16, did not respond to requests for comment.
Olsen repeatedly spoke with Trump on January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the election, and the House special committee investigating the attack was expected to reach its conclusion after subpoenaing Olsen and others.
The commission said Mr. Olsen was also deeply involved in a failed attempt to use the Justice Department to overturn election results, alleging massive voter fraud.
And in 2022, Olsen unsuccessfully represented former TV anchor and Republican candidate Kari Lake, who lost the Arizona gubernatorial election to Katie Hobbs, including claims that her electronic voting machines were tampered with.
Olsen was sanctioned by a federal judge for making “false, misleading and unsubstantiated claims of fact” in a lawsuit aimed at overturning Lake’s loss in the 2022 election. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit later sanctioned Olsen and another attorney $122,200 for making dishonest and unsubstantiated claims about the reliability of voting machines.
The watchdog group Center for State Unity Democracy and Lawyers for American Democracy filed an ethics lawsuit in 2024, alleging that Olsen’s repeated participation in filing election-related lawsuits based on false claims may violate professional ethics standards.
What has Olsen done as White House election security official?
Fulton County officials, who have denied widespread problems with the 2020 election, asked the court to release an FBI agent’s affidavit revealing Olsen’s role.
The FBI, part of the Justice Department, seized ballots and other records related to the 2020 election in a raid on January 28. The move marked a significant escalation in President Trump’s efforts during his second term to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to then-Vice President Joe Biden.
Mr. Olsen is also involved in ODNI and broader U.S. intelligence efforts to investigate and corroborate President Trump’s long-debunked claims that foreign interference was involved in stealing the 2020 election.
President Trump specifically named Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who was present during the Fulton County attack, to lead the effort.
Politico and NBC News have reported, citing unnamed sources, that the spy agency is sharing classified intelligence reports with Olsen to help with the 2020 election investigation.
U.S. intelligence officials did not confirm these reports in a Feb. 16 email with USA TODAY.
“The President has asked Mr. Olsen to investigate information related to the 2020 election, and the CIA is ensuring he has the access he needs to carry out his duties,” the CIA said in a statement.
Additionally, an ODNI spokesperson said in an email to USA TODAY that anyone granted access to classified information undergoes extensive background checks to ensure the information is reliable and does not pose a threat to national security.
Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized Gabbard and Olsen for continuing efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 election.
“A newly unsealed affidavit shows this raid stemmed from attorney Kurt Olsen’s frivolous claims spreading debunked falsehoods about the 2020 election,” Warner said in a Feb. 10 statement.
American elections have always been run by state and local election officials, but President Trump recently said he wants to leave November’s midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress, to the federal government to prevent voter fraud.
“Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over voting in at least 15 of the most places,'” Trump said during an appearance on Dan Bongino’s podcast, who returned to the show on Feb. 2 after resigning as FBI deputy director in the Trump administration in January. “Republicans should nationalize voting. There are some states where it’s very skewed.”
Some Democrats see this as an attempt to use Trump’s past claims of voter fraud to justify another round of executions that will be biased in his favor.
Warner said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on February 8 that Trump “sees the political winds are against him and is trying to interfere in the 2026 election.”
