DHS Appointees Asked CISA to Secretly Obtain and Hack Voting Machine, ProPublica Reports

The appointees wanted CISA to procure the machine, examine it and report the findings so they could be given to the White House, according to two former administration officials with knowledge of the request. One of the former officials said the proposition was shocking to CISA's career staffers.

CISA typically worked to thwart hackers. The agency had also been directed not to alert the voting machine company if it uncovered flaws, contrary to its standard practices, according to the report. The request made CISA employees fear they were being asked to take part in political interference.

"My thought was they could keep it in their back pocket to invalidate any [election] results they don't like," one of the former officials said. "This goes against everything CISA represents."

CISA employees repeatedly told the political appointees that their request was impossible, in part because the agents capable of carrying out such an operation had just been laid off by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency initiative. The appointees eventually stopped pressing CISA.

Though the request was not acted on, it shows how the Trump administration has tried to use the agency for its own ends while draining it of resources for one of its critical missions: protecting the nation's voting systems, according to the report.