Federal investigators have been interviewing multiple people who are pushing unfounded claims that Venezuela helped steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump, the Guardian has learned.

two promoters of the conspiracy theory have repeatedly briefed the US attorney for the district of puerto Rico,W Stephen Muldrow,and have shared witnesses and documents with officials,according to four sources. Muldrow declined to comment.

In addition to the Puerto Rico talks, people pushing the conspiracy have been interviewed by federal investigators for a federal taskforce in Tampa which is looking at Venezuelan drug trafficking and money laundering, four sources told the Guardian. The US attorney’s office in Tampa declined to comment.

An inquiry of this sort underscores how Trump’s justice department is becoming a major weapon in the president’s efforts to rewrite the history of his 2020 loss – while potentially strengthening the governance’s case for military action against Venezuela.

While there were a variety of conspiracy theories that helped fuel Donald Trump’s 2020 “Stop the Steal” movement – dead voters, stolen, fraudulent or forged ballots, and secret computer servers in Germany – the purported influence of Venezuela was always a central claim.It asserted that electronic voting in the US was secretly controlled by the impoverished regime, both by President Nicolás Maduro and his deceased predecessor Hugo Chávez.

Venezuela’s top opposition leader claims ‘new era’ is coming despite lack of clear plan

Not only was it bizarre on its face, but a judge in Delaware ruled it false in 2023, and Fox News, Newsmax and OAN later paid a total of hundreds of millions in total damages in defamation claims. At heart, the theory was that Smartmatic, which had the contract for electronic voting machines in Los Angeles, and Dominion, which ran voting in many other parts of the country, had been created or influenced by Venezuela to fix elections.The revival of the claim appears to bind together two themes: Trump’s consistent “rigged election” complaints, and his antagonism to Venezuela’s socialist regime.

With a military buildup in the Caribbean and increased sabre-rattling from the Trump administration towards Maduro, the unfounded election-rigging theories could provide another

US Attorney Investigating Puerto Rico Voting Irregularities

Sources familiar with the relationship between US Attorney stephen Muldrow, Justice Department official John Berntsen, and Puerto Rico’s State Election Commission administrator, Karen Rodil, indicate extensive cooperation regarding allegations of voting irregularities in Puerto Rico. “They work together. Muldrow has been very receptive,” one source stated, noting multiple briefings have taken place in Puerto Rico.

Stephen Muldrow is notable as one of the few US attorneys to retain his position following the change in administration from Trump to Biden. Initially appointed by Trump in 2019, he continued to serve under the Biden administration.Two individuals familiar with Muldrow describe him as a staunch Republican and Trump supporter. Muldrow’s career has been largely based in tampa, and he maintains a strong working relationship with Pam Bondi, the current trump-appointed US attorney general.