by WorldTribune Staff, July 20, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

You could count on the fingers of one hand the number of public officials willing to publicly state that voting machines connected to the Internet can be hacked and may well have been used to manipulate election results globally, most notably in the United States in 2020. One is President Donald Trump and another is Secretary of Homeland Security and former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin.

Retired CIA operative and government whistleblower Gary Berntsen gives credit to both men for not being afraid to address the issue.

Bernsten led a privately-funded four-year investigation which found enemies of the United States, including especially Venezuela and China have been interfering in U.S. elections since 2006 through the use of sophisticated electronic systems that they have developed. [See the video of his July 17 interview below.]

Solid reports on vulnerabilities of such voting machines and systems fueled conspiracy theories promoted by “patriots” who sometimes profited from the controversy. But like other reports of election irregularities in 2020, they had yet to be officially investigated before President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in early 2025.

Related: Who counted the votes? Who are the stakeholders in Dominion Voting Systems?, November 10, 2020

Bernsten reportedly briefed Trump staff and intelligence officials following the 2024 election with Mullin’s assistance. Most were horrified by what they heard, Bernsten said.

After all, media organizations including Fox News and Newsmax that picked up on the sensational allegations were nearly sued into oblivion by Dominion Voting Systems armed with a massive legal budget after the 2020 election.

Trump had earlier posted to social media about reports of computerized voting fraud and accepted an unannounced nighttime visit by Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell on Dec. 18, 2020 but ultimately rejected their plan to take executive action at the time.

Related: White House lawyers prevailed following surprise Trump meeting with Flynn, Powell on Dec. 18, February 2, 2021

“Despite concerns raised by some cybersecurity experts regarding the vulnerability of electronic voting systems, Dominion asserts that its machines produce physical receipts for independent verification, mitigating the risks of manipulation,” EBSCO noted in a 2021 report.

Twenty-seven states were reportedly still using Dominion Voting systems in 2025 when it was acquired by a Republican election official and rebranded as Liberty Vote.

Now Markwayne Mullin is Secretary of Homeland Security. Six years after the 2020 presidential election, electronic voting machines which can be accessed via the Internet, may finally be under investigation by U.S. agencies.

One day after Trump’s July 16 primetime address to the nation on foreign interference in U.S. elections by China with the apparent complicity of the U.S. Intelligence Community, Mullin held a followup press conference on July 17 in which he explained how foreign hackers can access vulnerable voting machines to change registration information, and even votes.

DHS: “We know for sure foreign adversaries have parts that are vital pieces in our voting machines. We know they can access what they consider the key to the back of these machines. We know they can change voter registration and your vote. We know it’s possible. It’s not even for… pic.twitter.com/rdtK9iZ756

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) July 17, 2026

Berntsen, one of the most decorated CIA operations officers in modern times, recruited and led the combined CIA-Special Forces teams that helped overthrow the Taliban after the attack of 9/11 and had Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaida fighters trapped in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan.

He also served as a CIA Station Chief in three counties; led the Hizbullah working group; investigated the East Africa embassy bombings in 1998; and stopped various terrorist attacks around the world.

Bernsten and his team are now going public with evidence they have assembled which is described in a new book by Ralph Pezzullo titled “Stolen Elections: The Plot to Destroy Global Democracy” published by Skyhorse Publishing.

On the July 17 broadcast of The Benny Show, Berntsen told host Benny Johnson how he discovered elections are being stolen, tracing the system’s development back to 2003 when Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez faced a recall election:

Freedom Rocks! Until It Is Gone

  China and computerized election theft, Former CIA operative Gary Berntsen on Venezuela, WorldTribune.com