Declassified National Intelligence Memorandum Shows US Adversaries Had Capability to Compromise US Election Infrastructure and Much More

A newly declassified National Intelligence Council (NIC) memo titled “Vulnerabilities in U.S. 2020 Election Infrastructure” from January 15, 2020, was published by Just The News.  The memo was declassified by the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, on March 16, 2026.

The concerns raised by the NIC were enough to warrant officials briefing President Trump in February 2020, a month after the report was released, according to reporting from Just the News.

The “Key Takeaway” from the memo states, “We assess that at least Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea have the capability to access and potentially manipulate data in U.S. election-related computer systems,” while acknowledging they were not aware of any “specific plans” to do so.

The report also acknowledges “nonstate groups” as having the capability to gain access to the critical infrastructure.

Chris Krebs, who was the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the time, infamously testified before Congress on November 12, 2020, that the 2020 election was “the most secure in American history”.  This was a joint statement from the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) and the Sector Coordinating Council (SCC).

The GCC is made of key representatives of federal agencies and local election officials, but also includes non-governmental organizations such as the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED).

The SCC is made up of private sector counterparts such as Dominion Voting (now LibertyVote), Hart InterCivic, Democracy Works, ES&S, and ERIC.

JOHN SOLOMON: We now know as of this morning that the intelligence community UNANIMOUSLY ASSESSED in JANUARY AND FEBRUARY OF 2020 that America’s election infrastructure was HIGHLY VULNERABLE TO FOREIGN INTRUSIONS.@jsolomonReports pic.twitter.com/3o4jAsGvhv

— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) April 21, 2026

NIC Report’s Findings

The memorandum includes several different segments of election infrastructure that are vulnerable to attack, including voter registration databases, pollbooks, and voting machines.

The memorandum notes that voter registration databases exist on “Internet-connected systems designed for easy access” because the records are continuously updated.  It notes that “adversaries could alter data to potentially prevent individual voters or groups of voters from voting” or “cause delays on election day.”

As John Solomon of Just the News reported, Iran and China both gained access to voter registration databases.  Iranian hackers were indicted for the breach in November 2021 while declassified documents showed Beijing’s penetration in March 2026.

The memo also notes the vulnerabilities with pollbooks, which many e-pollbooks also connect to the internet.  It notes that these “would be able to easily exploit to manipulate data.”  The Gateway Pundit exclusively reported on Dallas County ExpressPoll poll pads incrementing voters on their own as polls were closing during the November 2022 elections.  It then happened yet again in November 2023.

Among numerous other instances of pollbook discrepancies, The Gateway Pundit also reported on issues with pollbooks in Virginia’s Prince William County during the 2022 election.  This was now-Governor Abigail Spanberger’s election.

The January 2020 memo noted that centralized data repositories are the most vulnerable:

“We assess that adversaries could most easily exploit centralized election-related data repositories because of their ease of access and comparative lack of security.  These systems, which are used to collect, update, and store voter information, are designed for regular access, commonly through web portals, which make them vulnerable to a range of malicious cyber activities.”

“Vote-Administering Systems” were noted as “vulnerable to localized exploitation” in the memo, noting that “hackers have repeatedly demonstrated that some voting machines are easy to compromise.”

“Direct recording electronic machines, which record and process votes digitally and store tabulation data in removable memory, are particularly vulnerable to cyber operations, especially machines with no paper backup.  Such machines, however, are used far less than other, more secure types of voting machines.”

While the “auditable paper trail” is always mentioned as a safeguard against election fraud, most jurisdictions have restricted any public oversight to digital ballot images, not the physical paper.  Fulton County, Georgia, for example, has fought since 2021 to prevent any public examination of the physical paper ballots until the FBI seized them in early 2026.

The memo continued:

“Adversaries who obtained physical access to voting machines could alter how they function, manipulate the data in them, or install malware, according to U.S. state and academic investigations.  At the 2019 DefCon cybersecurity conference, hackers demonstrated the ability to compromise more than 100 voting machines, all of which had been certified for use in at least one U.S. voting jurisdiction.”

The Gateway Pundit reported on July 2022 testimony in Lake v. Hobbs from Clay Parikh, a former Voting Systems Test Lab contractor for Pro V&V, who testified he could hack into the systems in “five to ten minutes” with a record time of two minutes.  He also testified that he was forbidden from “going further” into the system, where he could “manipulate the statistical data on the system.”

The memo also states that, “Voting machines configured at a central location are vulnerable to insider threats.  Malware introduced into the voting machines during this phase might affect multiple jurisdictions, but also would be detectable during the pre-election testing.”

The report includes many other concerns regarding the election infrastructure in the United States, highlighting vulnerabilities that should shake every American to the core.

As John Solomon said in the above interview, “This is not the most explosive stuff that Tulsi Gabbard holds in her hands.”  Stay tuned.

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