Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Donald Trump’s loss within the 2020 election, has been appointed to a senior place within the U.S. Segment of Place of origin Safety wherein she’ll assistance observe the family’s election infrastructure.
Honey is a protege of Cleta Mitchell, a attorney who attempted to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results. In 2024, ProPublica reported that Honey had performed a key position in Mitchell’s behind-the-scenes try to modify Georgia’s election regulations to permit Republican officers to duel a possible Trump loss in that moment’s presidential race. Honey additionally promoted election conspiracy theories, together with one Trump cited in a accent to his fans ahead of they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Regardless that states do the on-the-ground paintings of working elections, DHS helps them with duties past their capacities, corresponding to protecting IT infrastructure and voter databases from overseas intrusions. The company, with bipartisan backup, took in this position within the aftermath of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Mavens on balloting and shape election officers warned that Honey’s appointment as DHS’ deputy associate secretary of election integrity may erode consider between shape and federal officers, prompting states to not proportion data with the company.
“We are witnessing a dangerous trend: the elevation of known bad-faith actors like Heather Honey,” stated Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of shape, in a observation, mentioning Honey’s “well-documented history of spreading election lies that have been debunked in court.”
Fontes known as her involvement with DHS “deeply troubling” and stated “when the agency gives a platform to individuals who have actively worked to erode public trust, it becomes harder to view DHS as a reliable partner in election security.”
A DHS spokesperson didn’t solution questions from ProPublica on Honey’s appointment or the precise nature of her duties. Honey didn’t reply to screams or emails. The White Area additionally didn’t reply to a request for remark. Her title is indexed at the group’s management construction on-line, and her appointment used to be first reported by the website Democracy Docket.
Within the first Trump management, the government arrange systems designed to safe U.S. elections from overseas interference, together with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company, an arm of DHS. However Trump soured in this and alternative projects then the director of CISA publicly rebutted his claims that the 2020 election used to be stolen.
Because the get started of the second one Trump presidency, the management has gutted the ones systems, reducing hundreds of employees at CISA. Its director, Chris Krebs, is now under federal investigation, DHS has stated; Krebs told CNN that the investigation gave the look to be an business of political retribution. The Justice Department has also rolled back a program geared toward combatting overseas affect campaigns. Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi wrote in a memorandum that the Justice Segment’s program used to be disbanded to “free resources to address more pressing priorities, and end risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion.”
David Becker, the chief director of the Middle for Election Innovation and Analysis, a nonprofit interested by development consider in American elections, stated the cuts had dismantled “nearly all” of DHS’ capability to offer protection to election infrastructure. He stated shape elections officers feared that Honey’s appointment, blended with this system cuts, signaled the Trump management’s intent to do away with bulwarks of honest U.S. elections.
“The hiring of an election conspiracy theorist with no election knowledge or expertise is the culmination of this reversal,” Becker stated. “DHS now appears poised to become a primary amplifier of false election conspiracies pushed by our enemies.”
Two assets habitual with Honey’s hiring at DHS stated she started operating for the company utmost occasion. An organizational chart dated Aug. 18 at the department’s website identifies her as a leader within the company’s Place of business of Technique, Coverage and Plans. Her place wasn’t on a model of the website archived in July, and officers in former administrations stated that there’s been disagree such activity in the past.
It’s now not sunlit but what Honey will observe, however former DHS officers stated that deputy associate secretaries are normally the company’s supremacy mavens of their matter disciplines. They’re frequently interested in drafting govt orders and crafting insurance policies. Additionally they handover as liaisons to the White Area and the Nationwide Safety Council.
Since Honey began, Trump has announced “a movement to get rid of” mail-in ballots and balloting machines by means of govt sequence, although a top aide subsequently said the management would pursue the ones targets thru legislative motion. DHS has additionally threatened to shorten off about $28 million in grants to assistance states get ready for terrorism and failures in the event that they don’t alternate balloting regulations to evolve to the management’s priorities, NPR has reported.
Honey’s tasks most probably would come with serving to to arrange the federal government’s coverage responses if overseas actors put together intrusions into the family’s election methods, former officers stated. To do that, and to evaluate the protection of election infrastructure, any person in her place would normally have get entry to to categorised data, together with the federal government’s election-related wisdom.
Mavens expressed worry about Honey’s portfolio, given her historical past of spreading incorrect information.
“Heather Honey’s past misleading claims about vote counts in Pennsylvania, among other things, have helped fuel false conspiracy theories about stolen elections,” stated Larry Norden, an election skilled on the Brennan Middle for Justice at NYU Regulation, a nonpartisan legislation and coverage team.
Prior to turning into swept up within the “Stop the Steal” motion, Honey had disagree revel in within the federal executive or as an election administrator, operating as a Pennsylvania-based private investigator.
Later the 2020 election, she was a contractor for a Republican-backed audit in the hunt for evidence of fraud in ballots solid in Maricopa County, Arizona. In step with emails between workers operating at the evaluation, which ended up reaffirming Biden’s win, Honey helped draft the final report.
Since nearest, Honey has led a minimum of 3 organizations devoted to transforming election systems in techniques championed by way of conservatives, corresponding to tightening eligibility necessities for nation to be on voter rolls. Participants of Honey’s Pennsylvania Truthful Elections, a state chapter of Mitchell’s national Election Integrity Community, have challenged the eligibility of thousands of citizens to be on voter rolls.
Honey has additionally been interested in various alternative efforts to turn into elections across the nation, including a successful push to get many states with Republican management to tug out of a bipartisan interstate partnership to proportion knowledge to put together balloting extra hold.
Do you have got data you’ll be able to proportion about Heather Honey or elections paintings being executed within the federal executive, particularly on the Segment of Place of origin Safety? Touch reporter Doug Bock Clark at doug.clark@propublica.org or on Sign at 678-243-0784. If you happen to’re fascinated by confidentiality, check out our advice on the most secure ways to share tips.
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