Gabbard testimony on Puerto Rico voting machines raises questions about role of Venezuela conspiracy theory

<p>National intelligence director said voting machine seizure was requested by US attorney in Puerto Rico – who’s been trying to revive 2020 election conspiracy theory</p><p>When the US director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, testified on Thursday that her office seized voting machines from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/puerto-rico">Puerto Rico</a>, she said it was at the request of the office of the US attorney in Puerto Rico. Left unsaid was that the prosecutor, as the Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/21/trump-doj-venezuela-2020-election">previously reported</a>, has been the center of a push by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump">Donald Trump</a> supporters to revive a long discredited conspiracy theory purporting to link <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/venezuela">Venezuela</a> to Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat.</p><p>Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the conspiracy theory maintains, controlled electronic voting machines worldwide and remotely manipulated results in 2020 to deprive Trump of a presidential victory.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/20/puerto-rico-voting-machines-trump-2020-election-loss-venezuela">Continue reading...</a>