Padilla, Colleagues Warn Trump May Declare Election-Related National Emergency After White House Hires Prominent Election Denier to Reexamine 2020 Election Results

Senators: Kurt Olsen's appointment seems "to be part of a scheme to convince the President to attempt a national emergency declaration to illegally claim unconstitutional federal powers over state and local election administration."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California's former Secretary of State, led eight colleagues in condemning the White House's alarming hiring of former "Stop the Steal" and Trump campaign lawyer Kurt Olsen as a "special government employee" to "investigate" the 2020 election again, five years later. The Senators emphasized that the White House's hiring of Olsen follows a clear pattern of hiring 2020 election deniers and Trump loyalists to do election work, raising fears that senior White House staff may enable President Trump to declare a national emergency to illegally interfere in state and local election administration.

"The 2020 election was heavily litigated and closely examined, and there is no justification for White House staff in 2025 to waste taxpayer money on endlessly rehashing false 2020 election conspiracy theories," wrote the Senators to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and White House Chief Counsel David Warrington. "Mr. Olsen is particularly ill-suited to lead such a probe, given that he advanced such conspiracy theories as he worked to prevent four battleground states from certifying the 2020 election."

"Let us be clear: any attempt to declare a national emergency to interfere in state and local election administration would be illegal and unconstitutional," continued the Senators. "While we are confident any such scheme would fail quickly in the face of judicial scrutiny, it still poses unacceptable risks of undermining future elections in this country. Therefore, we demand you closely oversee Mr. Olsen and other appointees to ensure they do not engage in illegal or unethical conduct in pursuit of an unconstitutional national emergency regarding elections."

On President Trump's 2020 campaign, Olsen worked to prevent the certification of valid election results in four states ahead of the January 6th Capitol insurrection. Since then, he has also been sanctioned by Arizona's Supreme Court for lies he told to try to overturn the results in Kari Lake's 2022 gubernational bid, and he pushed President Trump to make legal demands around voter data in Arizona, Wisconsin, and Georgia ahead of the 2024 election to set up future election challenges. Olsen's position reportedly has "direct" access to the President, raising concerns after he said he wants to examine election machines and repeatedly spread unfounded misinformation that these machines are not secure, despite major news networks paying hundreds of millions in defamation settlements for similar lies.

Olsen's hiring comes after other prominent election deniers like Heather Honey, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Election Integrity at the Department of Homeland Security, have pressured President Trump to declare a "national emergency" to unconstitutionally influence how states administer elections. Prior to her appointment, Honey advocated for Trump to seize "some additional powers that don't exist right now," bypass Congress' authority, and "mandate that states do things," predicating these changes on an investigation of the 2020 election and senior White House staff cooperation. Olsen's appointment to rehash 2020 election conspiracy theories further raises alarm bells on the potential for Trump to declare a national emergency.

The Senators also condemned Trump's anti-voter executive order illegally directing the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to revise voting system standards and rescind voting machine certifications, and they slammed the President's threat to issue another illegal and unconstitutional executive order to ban mail-in ballots. They pushed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and White House Counsel David Warrington to also make sure Olsen and other appointees follow the bipartisan Help America Vote Act that established EAC as an independent entity outside of the White House's unilateral control.

In addition to Senator Padilla, the letter was also signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Senator Padilla has led the charge opposing President Trump's unlawful attempt at a Presidential power grab through his anti-voter executive order. Earlier this year, Padilla led 14 Democratic Senators in calling on President Trump to revoke his illegal executive order that would disenfranchise millions of Americans. Padilla also led 11 Senators in introducing the Defending America's Future Elections Act to repeal the order and prevent the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive voter registration data and state records. Additionally, Padilla and U.S. Representative Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.-25) warned officials at the EAC about the dangerous implications for elections following President Trump's executive order purporting to bring independent regulatory agencies under total control of the White House.

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Ms. Wiles and Mr. Warrington,

We write with serious concern that Kurt Olsen has reportedly been hired by the White House as a "special government employee" to "investigate" the 2020 election.

While the 2020 election was nearly five years ago, Mr. Olsen's appointment appears to be part of a scheme to convince the President to attempt a national emergency declaration to illegally claim unconstitutional federal powers over state and local election administration. Any such declaration would quickly fail to withstand legal scrutiny, but it would still represent a completely unacceptable attempt to undermine the U.S. Constitution and free and fair elections in this country. We write to remind you of your responsibilities to oversee any work conducted by Mr. Olsen, and other similarly minded appointees, to ensure they do not violate legal and ethical standards and undermine the future of free and fair elections in this country.

Unfortunately, these concerns are very real. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Election Integrity at the Department of Homeland Security Heather Honey has advocated for the Trump Administration to declare a "national emergency" to seize "some additional powers that don't exist right now" in order to take "these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on." Ms. Honey claimed that such an action could somehow be prefaced on an "investigation" of the 2020 election, the purpose for which Mr. Olsen has been hired at the White House. Notably, she stated: "I don't know if that's really feasible and if the people around the president would let him test that theory." Ms. Honey is a veteran of the Election Integrity Network, the group founded by Cleta Mitchell, who supported Trump's attempt to reverse the legitimate outcome of the 2020 election. Ms. Honey collaborated with Mr. Olsen in his efforts to support Kari Lake's 2022 election loss in Arizona.

The 2020 election was heavily litigated and closely examined, and there is no justification for White House staff in 2025 to waste taxpayer money on endlessly rehashing false 2020 election conspiracy theories. Mr. Olsen is particularly ill-suited to lead such a probe, given that he advanced such conspiracy theories as he worked to prevent four battleground states from certifying the 2020 election. When all legal avenues were exhausted, he spoke with President Trump in the lead up to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, where a violent mob assaulted the Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral votes. Since then, Mr. Olsen has received sanctions from the Arizona Supreme Court for "unequivocally false" claims made to overturn the 2022 Arizona governor's race on behalf of Kari Lake. More recently, he encouraged President Trump to make unfounded legal demands of Arizona, Wisconsin, and Georgia relating to voting machine data, to lay the groundwork to challenge the results of the 2024 election if President Trump had lost again.

Mr. Olsen has also perpetuated false claims that voting machines were not properly secured during the 2020 election. Major news networks that carried such false claims have paid hundreds of millions in legal settlements brought by voting equipment companies for defamation. Meanwhile, the Administration has shown no concern for the actual needs of state and local election administration by proposing to slash election security grant funding and eliminating the election-related work at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Mr. Olsen's appointment also raises concerns in light of Executive Order 14248 which purports to direct the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to revise voting system standards and, concerningly, "rescind all previous certifications of voting equipment based on prior standards." You both have a duty to ensure that Mr. Olsen and other appointees follow the Help America Vote Act, which was enacted on an overwhelming bipartisan basis, and establishes the EAC as an independent entity that cannot be unilaterally directed from the White House.

In August, President Trump threatened to issue a second illegal and unconstitutional Executive Order on elections in an attempt to ban mail-in ballots. As you know, the President himself has voted by mail, as do millions of Republicans, Democrats and independents in numerous states according to state laws. The U.S. Constitution gives exclusive power over the administration of elections to the states and Congress, not the president, and we understand that this second Executive Order has not been issued following further internal discussions.

Let us be clear: any attempt to declare a national emergency to interfere in state and local election administration would be illegal and unconstitutional. While we are confident any such scheme would fail quickly in the face of judicial scrutiny, it still poses unacceptable risks of undermining future elections in this country. Therefore, we demand you closely oversee Mr. Olsen and other appointees to ensure they do not engage in illegal or unethical conduct in pursuit of an unconstitutional national emergency regarding elections.

Sincerely,

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