Donald Trump Claims China Compromised 220 Million US Voter Files

 US President Donald Trump said China carried out the largest compromise of election data in history by illicitly acquiring 220mn American voter files. The US leader delivered a 25-minute televised evening speech from the White House outlining the allegations. Trump said Beijing began acquiring this information during the 2020 election cycle.

The breached data contains extensive personal details. Trump said the compromised files included names, home addresses, phone numbers, political party affiliations and voter registration details.

"Tonight, I'm announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure," Trump said.

Deep State Cover-Up

The US president accused members of the "deep state" and the American intelligence community of intentionally hiding the Chinese data breach for years.

"This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare," Trump said. He also quoted an official intelligence assessment stating that US adversaries, including Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and non-state groups, have the capability to compromise US elections.

Trump demanded immediate investigations, directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Director of National Intelligence to probe the allegations against Beijing.

He also pressured congressional Republicans to pass legislation demanding new citizenship and voter identification mandates, despite longstanding findings that voter fraud in US elections is rare.

Declassified Files Contradict Claims

Many of the newly public records fail to support the president's allegations or were not related to US election infrastructure at all. A Central Intelligence Agency file from last month focused entirely on the Venezuelan election, rather than the American system.

"We assess that vote tabulation systems would be difficult to manipulate on a wide enough scale to compromise election results," one declassified document stated. A third released CIA file detailed efforts by Chinese spies to target Biden's campaign and indicated Beijing "does not currently intend to covertly interfere to try to sway the outcome of the election", although it stated China might later decide to do so.

Democratic Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, rejected the assertions. "Trump's shocking 'bombshells' about China are totally bogus," Warner said in a statement. "The fact is our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that China did not even try to change a single vote in the 2020 election."

Meanwhile, a Chinese Embassy spokesperson in Washington stated that Beijing "has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the US".

Prior Investigations and Context

Allegations that China collected US voter data are not new. The National Intelligence Officer for Cyber prepared a report in 2020, partially released in 2022, which stated that Chinese officials reviewed state voting records merely for "public opinion analysis".

After the 2020 contest, more than 60 lawsuits, multiple audits, recounts and Trump's own Justice Department found no evidence of mass fraud that could change the election result. An unclassified 2021 US intelligence assessment, prepared under then Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, now Trump's CIA director, concluded that overseas actors failed to modify any technological element of the 2020 vote.

The cover page of that 2021 review showed the classified edition was delivered to Trump, senior members of his administration, congressional leaders and intelligence committees on 7 January 2021.