Trump loyalist who pushed false election claims takes on government role

Heather Honey, who supported Trump’s mendacious claims astir the 2020 race, has been named to oversee ‘election integrity’.

The medication of United States President Donald Trump has installed a right-wing researcher who pushed mendacious claims astir the 2020 predetermination to a presumption successful complaint of predetermination oversight.

As of Tuesday, a leadership chart for the Department of Homeland Security shows Pennsylvania activistic Heather Honey serving arsenic the lawman adjunct caput for predetermination integrity successful the Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans.

Honey’s assignment was archetypal reported by the investigative quality outlet Democracy Docket connected Monday.

Her presumption has raised eyebrows among critics of the Trump medication owed to her engagement successful respective efforts that resulted successful misleading probe astir the 2020 statesmanlike race.

Trump has pushed the mendacious assertion that his nonaccomplishment successful the 2020 predetermination was the effect of monolithic fraud, and helium has consistently refused to admit defeat.

Since returning to the White House for a 2nd word successful January, helium has placed loyalists successful positions of power, raising fears astir the independency of definite offices.

He has besides utilized his mendacious claims of fraudulent elections to spot unit connected the country’s electoral system, which is administered mostly by authorities and section officials.

Critics person warned that overtly partisan appointments to posts overseeing elections could diminish assurance successful the voting process.

“What I’m acrophobic astir is that it seems similar DHS [Department of Homeland Security] is being poised to usage the immense powerfulness and megaphone of the national authorities to dispersed disinformation alternatively than combat it,” David Becker, the enforcement manager of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, told The Associated Press quality agency.

“It’s going to truly harm DHS’s credibility overall.”

Who is Heather Honey?

Honey’s assignment successful peculiar has prompted predetermination experts and section officials to talk out, fixed her salient relation successful spreading misinformation astir the 2020 election.

For instance, Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s caput of authorities and a Democrat, told the quality outlet ProPublica successful a connection that Honey has a “well-documented past of spreading predetermination lies”.

Honey leads a consulting steadfast called Haystack Investigations, which was progressive successful predetermination “audits”, which experts see flawed, arsenic good arsenic different organisation called Verity Votes, which besides purports to behaviour predetermination research.

Trump and his supporters person drawn connected immoderate of her firms’ conclusions successful their efforts to undermine the 2020 predetermination results.

In the cardinal plaything authorities of Pennsylvania, for instance, Honey’s radical misrepresented incomplete elector information to falsely allege that the authorities had much votes than voters successful 2020.

Two years later, successful 2022, Verity Vote claimed that Pennsylvania sent mail-in ballots to voters who failed to supply due identification.

State officials, however, accused Verity Vote of misrepresenting the “not verified” designation successful its voting system.

In nationalist statements, the Pennsylvania Department of State explained that it uses the “not verified” tag to awesome to section officials that a voter’s recognition needs to beryllium verified. The designation is simply a “security feature” for elector applications, it said – not an denotation that voters could taxable ballots without due ID.

Trump narrowly mislaid Pennsylvania successful the 2020 election, with Democrat Joe Biden edging him retired by little than 1 percent.

In Arizona, different captious battleground plaything authorities that Trump mislaid successful 2020, Honey participated successful a partisan audit of predetermination results successful Maricopa County, a populous country containing the metropolis of Phoenix.

Despite searching for fraud for astir six months, the audit turned up nary grounds that the result successful Biden’s favour was erroneous. Still, experts accidental that audit was filled with errors and biased methodology.

In the years since, erstwhile Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, told The Associated Press that helium had received dozens of nationalist records requests related to elections from Honey.

Richer served successful the relation from 2021 to 2025, and said that specified requests occupied “scores of hours of unit time”.

He told The Associated Press helium was amazed to perceive Honey was successful a presumption of specified “authority and responsibility” and said that she was “not a superior auditor”.

Honey is not the archetypal Trump authoritative to look nationalist scrutiny for her relation successful his administration. Other appointees, similar Emil Bove, person faced aggravated nationalist questions astir whether they would prioritise their loyalty to Trump implicit their committedness to authorities ethics.

Since his triumph successful the 2024 election, Trump has besides opened investigations into critics and officials who probed his mendacious claims astir the 2020 election.

He has said helium volition bash distant with things similar mail-in ballots and voting machines, demands shared by others who propulsion anti-election conspiracies connected the US right.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies