Thread by @HackingButLegal

THREAD 🧵

1/ This breaking exclusive story from Reuters (sourced from her office) looks like an effort to retroactively justify and normalize Tulsi Gabbard's presence at the recent Georgia raid by framing it as part of a broader ODNI election security mission. I can explain:

https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/2019193201064833487

2/ Between Feb 1–4, Gabbard told Congress her Georgia role falls under ODNI's election security authority and is tied to a long running assessment of electronic voting systems.

3/ At the same time, this newly-public Puerto Rico operation is now being highlighted as proof of that "long running" work, with ODNI emphasizing vulnerabilities and alleged foreign‑interference risks to make Georgia look like one more node in an existing program.

4/ Puerto Rico gives her a prior case where ODNI directly handled voting machines with the FBI and prosecutors, a precedent she can cite when asked why the DNI is anywhere near a county election office in Georgia.

5/ P.R. also supplies a narrative template: no confirmed foreign attack, but some vulnerabilities discovered, which supports the claim that systems are so exposed that extraordinary measures (including raids of election offices!) are justified.

6/ However, the Georgia raid is portrayed by critics as unprecedented federal interference in a past state election, with Gabbard's physical presence at the site as a particular red flag. I and many other analysts agree: this situation stinks, and she wants the smell to dissipate

7/ Being able to say "we have already done this in Puerto Rico and uncovered real problems" answers that criticism at the narrative level even if it doesn't resolve the underlying legal and constitutional objections.

8/ Trump and Gabbard both benefit from stitching Puerto Rico and Georgia into a single storyline: a long term, intelligence driven effort to secure allegedly compromised electronic systems... not a targeted intervention in Fulton County.

9/ Opponents argue the "election security" label is being used as pretext to relitigate 2020 (the most studied election in our history) in a jurisdiction Trump fixates on, revealing the Fulton operation for the obvious political meddling that it is.

10/FIN In that light, elevating the Puerto Rico case now functions less as neutral transparency and more as construction of a paper trail and technocratic cover for ODNI's Georgia role and any future seizures.

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