In May 2025, a team working for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard led an investigation into Puerto Rico's voting machines, Reuters reported in February 2026, citing Gabbard's office and three sources. The sources said the goal was to work with the FBI to investigate claims that Venezuela had hacked the island's machines, and that the probe produced no clear evidence of Venezuelan interference. Gabbard's office confirmed the investigation but denied a link to Venezuela, saying its focus was vulnerabilities in Puerto Rico's electronic voting systems. It said the U.S. attorney in Puerto Rico, Homeland Security Investigations agents and an FBI supervisory special agent “facilitated the voluntary turnover of electronic voting hardware and software to ODNI for analysis,” called the taking of machines and data “standard practice in forensics analysis,” and said it “found extremely concerning cyber security and operational deployment practices that pose a significant risk to U.S. elections.”
Democrats on the intelligence committees objected. Sen. Mark Warner: “What's most alarming here is that Director Gabbard's own team acknowledges there was no evidence of foreign interference, yet they seized voting machines and election data anyway.” Rep. Jim Himes said Gabbard had yet to offer a “defensible legal rationale” and that the DNI “has no business at a law enforcement operation unless there is a legitimate foreign nexus, of which we've seen no indication.” Former intelligence officials and election experts told CNN it was unprecedented for the office to play such a hands-on role in election infrastructure. No court has ruled on whether the office acted within its authority. Gabbard was also present at the FBI's search of a Fulton County, Georgia election facility in January 2026 (see FBI Seizure of Fulton County 2020 Ballots).
Correction (October 2, 2026): this entry said the office acted illegally and quoted three statements attributed to Sen. Warner that appear in none of its sources; it also called the action a pattern of “seizing voting machines under pretextual justifications” and speculated about why Puerto Rico was chosen. Those statements were removed. Gabbard's office describes the handover as voluntary; “seized” is Warner's word.