An election denier who tried to overturn Donald Trump\u2019s 2020 election loss is facing scrutiny over his new role in the Justice Department as part of a team investigating the president\u2019s foes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Justice Department has placed Kurt Olsen at the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida, where the Trump ally is part of a probe into a \u201cgrand conspiracy.\u201d He was previously overseeing election security at the White House, where he made a referral to the Justice Department that resulted in an FBI search of an election hub near Atlanta in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group Free Speech For People, a nonprofit founded in 2010 that focuses on free and fair elections and rooting out corruption in government, sent 11 Democratic lawmakers a letter Tuesday morning urging them to seek Olsen\u2019s removal from the Justice Department. It wrote that Olsen had \u201cdriven efforts to access election systems and documents in Fulton County, Georgia, and Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Justice Department didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elections are run by the states. But Trump has recently suggested that federal officials take over some state elections based on accusations of voter fraud he has levied without evidence. The president ended an almost hourlong interview with NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker last week amid questions about evidence to back up his statement that the 2020 election was rigged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Free Speech For People wrote in its letter that court records \u201csuggest that Mr. Olsen has access to copies of election system software that were obtained through schemes to compromise voting equipment and take copies of the systems\u2019 software that occurred from 2020 to 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olsen got involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election after watching video clips online, and eventually was part of an effort led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that ultimately failed. Olsen then tried to pressure Justice Department officials to join efforts to overturn the election. In the end, members of Trump\u2019s Cabinet said there had been no widespread election fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olsen also appeared at an \u201cElection Crime Bureau Summit\u201d alongside Mike Lindell, Mike Flynn and Steve Bannon in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group sent the letter to lawmakers who have already suggested that Olsen had overstayed as a special government employee to the White House. Congress right now is controlled by Republicans, so it\u2019s not likely to result in Olsen\u2019s removal, but Democrats could launch an investigation and seek to draw more attention to the role he is playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group asked Democrats to seek Olsen\u2019s removal and to investigate \u201cthe wrongful access of voting equipment and Mr. Olsen\u2019s involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s probably the biggest player who\u2019s not widely known,\u201d Susan Greenhalgh, one of the signatories, told NBC News. The letter is also signed by Free Speech For People leaders John Bonifaz, Ben Clements and Courtney Hostetler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the Justice Department, Olsen is part of a team headed by 81-year-old Joe diGenova, who worked with Rudy Giuliani\u2019s team in a failed effort to overturn the 2020 election through lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Florida investigation includes diGenova\u2019s 84-year-old wife and other figures, such as Michael Ding, who used to work at a conservative group co-founded by White House official Stephen Miller; and Jake Rodenbiker, a federal prosecutor from North Dakota who is aligned with the state\u2019s Republican governor and had been under consideration for a role on the state\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also part of the effort: Rose Marketos, an FBI special agent who tried to investigate an \u201cItalygate\u201d conspiracy theory in 2020 that posited the election was stolen from Trump via Italian satellites, a theory one of Trump\u2019s own Justice Department officials called \u201cpure insanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DiGenova said on a right-wing program last year that \u201cBarack Obama … John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, everybody, Lisa Monaco\u201d should appear before a Southern District of Florida grand jury. \u201cThis conspiracy against President Trump deserves punishment, not just a lecture,\u201d diGenova said. \u201cPeople need to go to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stacey Young, founder of Justice Connection, a group of former DOJ workers, said career prosecutors understand they must follow the facts and law in investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen neither is on the administration\u2019s side, it drags in unscrupulous lawyers from the outside who are willing to break the rules to please the president,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n