Kurt Olsen, who worked to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, now holds a position at the Justice Department investigating the president's political opponents, drawing alarm from election watchdogs and calls for his removal.
Olsen has been placed at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida as part of a probe into what officials describe as a "grand conspiracy." Before joining the Justice Department, he oversaw election security at the White House, where he issued a referral that prompted an FBI search of an election hub near Atlanta in January.
Free Speech For People, a nonprofit organization focused on fair elections and government accountability, sent a letter Tuesday to 11 Democratic lawmakers demanding Olsen's removal. The group documented his efforts to access election systems and documents in Fulton County, Georgia, and Puerto Rico. Court records reviewed by the organization suggest Olsen possesses copies of election system software obtained through schemes designed to compromise voting equipment between 2020 and 2022.
"He's probably the biggest player who's not widely known," said Susan Greenhalgh, one of the signatories. The letter was also signed by Free Speech For People leaders John Bonifaz, Ben Clements, and Courtney Hostetler.
Olsen's path to the Justice Department began with online videos about election fraud. He became involved in efforts led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to overturn the 2020 election, and later pressed Justice Department officials to join those efforts. Members of Trump's own Cabinet eventually confirmed there had been no widespread election fraud, yet Olsen persisted.
His connections to fringe circles deepened in 2023 when he appeared at an "Election Crime Bureau Summit" alongside Mike Lindell, Mike Flynn, and Steve Bannon, figures who have also promoted unsubstantiated election fraud claims.
At the Justice Department, Olsen works under 81-year-old Joe diGenova, who previously teamed with Rudy Giuliani in a failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election through lawsuits. DiGenova has publicly called for criminal prosecution of former President Barack Obama and intelligence officials including John Brennan, James Clapper, and James Comey, declaring on a right-wing program that "people need to go to prison."
The Florida investigation also includes diGenova's 84-year-old wife, along with other figures with controversial histories. Michael Ding previously worked at a conservative group co-founded by White House official Stephen Miller. Jake Rodenbiker is a federal prosecutor from North Dakota aligned with the state's Republican governor. Rose Marketos, an FBI special agent on the team, previously investigated "Italygate," a debunked conspiracy theory claiming Italian satellites helped steal the election from Trump. A Trump administration Justice Department official had dismissed the theory as "pure insanity."
Elections are administered by the states, but Trump has recently suggested federal officials should take control of some state elections based on claims of voter fraud he has made without evidence. He ended an NBC "Meet the Press" interview last week when moderator Kristen Welker pressed him for evidence supporting his assertion that the 2020 election was rigged.
While Democrats have called for Olsen's removal and launched calls for investigation into his access to voting equipment, Republicans currently control Congress, making his ouster unlikely in the short term. However, the minority party could pursue its own investigation to raise public attention.
Stacey Young, founder of Justice Connection, a group of former Justice Department workers, offered a blunt assessment. "Career prosecutors understand they must follow the facts and law in investigations," she said. "When neither is on the administration's side, it drags in unscrupulous lawyers from the outside who are willing to break the rules to please the president."
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Placing an election denier who actively tried to overturn a prior election in charge of investigating that election's aftermath isn't just a conflict of interest, it's a blueprint for political weaponization masquerading as justice."
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