States’ mistrust of Trump’s fraud crusade could hinder fight against foreign influence in elections, federal officials fear

By Sean Lyngaas, Evan Perez, CNN

(CNN) — State and local election administrators’ growing suspicion of the Trump administration’s motives has triggered concerns among some federal officials that distrust of even routine moves by the FBI could hinder cooperation with states and give an opening for US adversaries trying to influence elections.

An FBI official this week sent a standard email to top state election officials inviting them to discuss how federal agencies could help with securing the midterms.

The email, reviewed by CNN, said the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, US Postal Investigative Service and other agencies wanted to speak with election officials about what support they could provide for the midterm elections. It’s a message that has gone out numerous times in the years since Russia’s 2016 influence campaign as the feds have looked to offer security resources for election administrators.

But this email, the existence of which was first reported by Crooked Media, came a week after the FBI executed a search warrant at the elections office of Fulton County, Georgia, and seized ballots related to the 2020 election — a move that alarmed many election officials. And it came amid Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s move to study voting machines for security vulnerabilities as she tries to support President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 contest was stolen from him.

Trump has also sparked alarm by saying he wants Republicans to “take over the voting, in at least … 15 places” and “nationalize” elections — comments for which his administration has given shifting explanations.

The Fulton County search and cuts to federal election security efforts in the second Trump administration have led to an “erosion of trust” between some election officials and the federal government, said one Republican election official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The Fulton County search “raises concerns among a lot of election officials,” the Republican added.

That’s a problem for the FBI. Any disruption in the security coordination between states, the bureau and other federal agencies, means foreign intelligence services will have an advantage if they try to shape or disrupt the elections, one U.S. official told CNN.

The first Trump administration built up a big federal security structure for tracking and defending against foreign influence on elections. But the second Trump administration has severely curtailed it, closing centers dedicated to countering foreign influence at the FBI and in Gabbard’s office.

Heading into the midterms, there is widespread concern among current and former officials that the US government’s willingness to combat foreign efforts to shape elections has waned, CNN has reported.

Explaining her presence at the Fulton County search, Gabbard has cited her foreign-focused responsibilities to justify her presence but has not provided any public evidence connecting Fulton County to any foreign threat.

“That horse has already left the barn,” the Republican election official said. “If there were credible evidence of actual foreign influence” in Fulton County, the US government would have previously disclosed it, the official added.

The FBI email “in theory, should be routine. And should be good,” said another source in the election community familiar with the FBI outreach. “But the administration and cabinet secretaries running things have created significant trust issues between federal and state authorities.”

Other sources in the election community told CNN that there was a risk of election officials — or commentators in the media — overreacting and crying wolf over a routine FBI email when there are so many other legitimate concerns over things like the Trump administration’s threats to federalize elections.

Don Palmer, a commissioner at the federal Election Assistance Commission, said the upcoming call with election officials is “an opportunity to introduce points of contact for the midterm election year and share information.”

There was “a wonderful level of familiarity” between federal officials and local and state officials in past election cycles as they worked together on security issues, said Stephen Richer, a former top Republican election official in Arizona’s Maricopa County who faced violent threats for saying the 2020 election was secure.

But now, Richer said, there are probably a “fair number” of election officials who view federal officials as potential “adversaries.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.