Trump's Director of Election Security Is an Election Denier

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/us/politics/trump-kurt-olsen-election-denialism.html

https://archive.ph/nr6W7

Trump’s Director of Election Security Is an Election Denier
Even in a government full of conspiracists, Kurt Olsen stands out. He made a key referral in the Fulton County, Ga., election case.
By Shawn McCreesh, Alexandra Berzon and Nick Corasaniti
Feb. 12, 2026, 5:08 a.m. ET

One of the more extraordinary aspects of President Trump’s second term is this: Some of the most far-out election conspiracists who helped him spread lies about the 2020 election and then tried to overturn it are now inside the government, using the power of the state to keep Mr. Trump’s denialism alive.

This dynamic came into focus on Tuesday when an unsealed F.B.I. search warrant affidavit revealed that the recent criminal investigation into the 2020 election results in Fulton County, Ga., had been instigated by Kurt Olsen, a rather prominent character in Mr. Trump’s election denialism movement. Mr. Olsen, who is a lawyer, was considered by people in the first Trump administration to be a fringe menace.

In the second Trump administration, he is the director of “election security and integrity,” with the power to refer criminal investigations — criminal investigations into things that have been thoroughly debunked. No matter how many times the results of the 2020 election have been rehashed, Mr. Trump’s fixations have not abated. Mr. Olsen’s position is proof of that.

But he is not the only one. The president has installed proponents of his fraud claims all across his administration. And increasingly, he has started to cast doubts on the coming midterm elections as Republicans face potentially big losses in November.

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