The Biden Administration Knew China Could Manipulate Our Elections - And Covered It Up
Newly declassified intelligence shows U.S. intelligence discovered the threat of Chinese access and control of U.S. election systems — then buried the evidence and punished those who exposed it.
This analysis is free, but with Premium Membership you get MORE. Join today.
by Sam Faddis
April 28, 2026
In 2022, the election security firm True the Vote broke the story that a company called Konnech in Michigan was storing data on American election workers on servers in China. True the Vote leaders Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips were, of course, ridiculed by the so-called mainstream press.
Then it got worse.
Engelbrecht and Phillips were actually jailed because they would not give up the name of their source, who had blown the whistle on Konnech. The federal government didn’t seem to give a damn that a hostile foreign power might be able to influence our elections. It did seem very intent on making sure no one knew about it.
Now, four years later, we can see that it was much, much worse than that. According to John Solomon, at the time True the Vote was being silenced, the Intelligence Community had assessed the situation, recognized the risk, and issued a report outlining the danger we faced. And that report and that assessment were hidden from the public, even as patriots trying to protect the republic were being persecuted and jailed.
“We judge that U.S. adversaries, including, at a minimum, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as non-state groups, have the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure for the 2020 presidential election,” the National Intelligence Council wrote in the memo dated Jan. 15, 2020.
“Adversaries gaining access to U.S. election-related systems could disrupt the voting process, steal sensitive data, or undermine confidence in the election results, but we do not know whether any of them have specific plans to manipulate election-related systems,” the memo added.
The document was recently declassified by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who continues to expose examples of the intelligence community suppressing or misusing intelligence. The report in question was prepared by then National Intelligence Officer for Cyber. Chief Christopher Porter.
Talking to John Solomon, Porter had this to say.
Keep in mind what was known about Konnech when True the Vote blew the whistle. Konnech wasn’t just storing data in China. Konnech was using contractors inside China to do work in the United States on American election systems. This is the exact language in the criminal complaint ultimately filed by Los Angeles. (Charges were dropped against the head of Konnech after the federal government intervened.)
“On or about October 10, 2019, through October 4, 2022, Eugene Yu and other employees at Konnech, Inc. were providing these services to Los Angeles County using third-party contractors based in China.”
“…Konnech employees known and unknown sent personal identifying information of Los Angeles County election workers to third-party software developers who assisted with creating and fixing Konnech’s internal ‘PollChief’ software.”
Konnech gave Chinese contractors in mainland China “super-administration access” to the electoral systems on which Konnech worked. It is incredible enough that Konnech itself ever had such access. It is literally almost beyond belief that Konnech would have been in a position to grant such access to other entities. Yet again, it is confirmed by the criminal complaint filed against the company.
“On or about August 18, 2022, Luis Nabergoi, project manager for Konnech’s contract with the County of Los Angeles, confirmed via the messaging app DingTalk that any employee for Chinese contractors working on PollChief software had ‘superadministration’ privileges for all PollChief clients. Mr. Nabergoi described the situation as a ‘huge security issue.’”
An individual with super administration access to a system can do (effectively) anything inside that system. He or she can delete data, steal data, alter data, change programming, etc. Perhaps most importantly, that individual can cover his or her tracks because they can potentially also access and alter all security protocols and programs (e.g., delete audit logs).
So, Konnech, which has numerous questionable ties to Chinese entities, was allowed to punch a hole into our election systems, and then Konnech was allowed to grant that same level of access to unknown “contractors” in China.
And yet, it got even worse.
Konnech didn’t only work for state and state electoral systems. Konnech also had access to something called the Uniformed And Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, (UOCAVA) program. Press reporting suggests that Konnech was hired on at least one occasion to do work for the Department of Defense pursuant to the UOCAVA.
In 1986, the federal government enacted the UOCAVA to provide special registration and absentee voting provisions for military and overseas civilians. The Department of Defense administers the UOCAVA program. Pursuant to the act, any uniformed and overseas citizen can register to vote and request an absentee ballot via the UOCAVA system. The individual simply submits what is known as a Federal Post Card Application. They are then sent an absentee ballot.
A person requesting a ballot under UOCAVA can, for some inexplicable reason, select any address they want when registering and requesting a ballot. Per the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), an overseas non-military voter may claim an address of domicile “even if you have not physically been present at that address.” There appears to be no requirement that the individual requesting a ballot even prove they are a U.S. citizen. In 2020, the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Election Assistance Commission, and National Institute of Standards and Technology described the UOCAVA process as “high risk” and “susceptible to fraud.”
Interestingly, the number of non-military UOCAVA voters skyrocketed to 573,000 from 228,000 between 2016 and the 2020 election.
If Konnech and contractors in China had super administrator access to the UOCAVA system, they could have done literally anything inside the UOCAVA system. The idea that we have a back door into our voting system with few or no safeguards to control who registers to vote is troubling enough. The thought that this back door could literally be under the complete control of entities connected to Communist China is chilling.
In the four years leading up to the 2020 election, roughly 350,000 “people” registered to vote using the UOCAVA system. That system may well have been compromised. All indicators point to mainland China.
Instead, not only did no one investigate, but action was taken against True the Vote for disclosing the threat. Catherine and Greg were, in fact, jailed and literally thrown into solitary confinement when they refused to identify the source of their information regarding Konnech. Federal agencies that were busy hiding intelligence regarding a grave national security threat apparently had all the time in the world to attack and imprison patriotic Americans trying to defend their country.
The Biden administration knew the Chinese could manipulate our elections, and they covered it up.
Why?
— Sam Faddis is Senior Editor of AND Magazine, where this essay originally appeared. A retired CIA operations officer, he is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for the American Future, and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger.
Recent Articles:
 | A guest post by
|
Again, our government has become a massive criminal enterprise. Massive. The massive stock market insider trading, graft, bribes, all forms of illegal activities, all suppressed, ignored, obfuscated, and nothing is ever really done. NO accountability still! There is TOO MUCH crime that has occurred and is still occurring! It is a national emergency of lawlessness within our government. Mass correction must happen. The congress, judiciary, federal agencies, etc...
My observations across multiple scandals over the years reveal to me a country incapable of fixing itself.
I don't know how we overcome corruption that has infected all levels both state and federal.
Voting our way out of these messes doesn't seem to work either.
We can't move forward as a nation as we are saddled with these crimes.