Key senator urges Trump to declassify intelligence on China election meddling

The chairman of the Senate's most powerful investigative panel is urging President Donald Trump to declassify and make public any U.S. intelligence showing China's efforts to gain access to American voter registration data or to use measures to influence voters dating back to 2020.

"I wish they briefed the American people on it. I don't know why you want to keep this classified or hidden. This needs to be thoroughly investigated, and when we have the results of that investigation, make it available to the public," said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

He added, "The sooner, the better."

Most U.S. policymakers have been kept in the dark

Johnson's plea came after Just the News earlier this week disclosed declassified documents showing Chinese intelligence gained access to multiple states' voter registration data in 2020 and conducted some voter influence efforts but chose to keep that intelligence quiet because spy agency analysts opposed Trump and his policies regarding Beijing.

You can read that intelligence here.

Similar revelations in 2024 that China hacked Great Britain's voter registration database led to a national outcry and reforms in that country. But in America, most policymakers have been kept in the dark.

Johnson told the Just the News, No Noise television show on Wednesday night that it was inexcusable that U.S. intelligence has kept the breaches of Americans' voter data secret, especially at a time when senators are voting on election security legislation that would mandate proof of citizenship and photo ID to vote, two measures supported by a supermajority of Americans.

"I would like to have all this information out. I appreciate your reports while we have this piece of legislation on the floor of the Senate," he said.

The Senate began debate this week on the legislation, known as the SAVE America Act that the House has already passed. Democrats are generally opposed to the bill, currently preventing it from getting to the 60 votes needed for passage in the Senate.

But Johnson said there was a pathway to get to eventual bipartisan support.

"You put a piece of legislation on the floor, and then you allow the amendment process to hone that piece of legislation, to improve it," he explained. "And one of the ways you can improve it is by getting more support of it [...] What does that mean? So actually, use this floor time, this debate, this amendment process, to craft a piece of legislation that would make it very difficult for Democrats to vote against.

"That ought to be the process that ought to be our goal," he said.

Democrats prefer to leave vote cheating unchecked, Johnson says

Johnson has raised concerns about the security of elections for years and the way voting was conducted by some states during the pandemic-impacted 2020 election.

He said he personally believes Democrats don't want voter ID and citizenship checks to keep the system loose and at least available for cheating.

Democrats have long denied there is widespread voter fraud. But since 2020, two local elections in New Jersey and Connecticut have been overturned and redone because of Democratic cheating, and recently a top DOJ official disclosed that tens of thousands of noncitizens ineligible to vote have made it onto voter rolls and dozens have illegally voted.

One such man, an undocumented Mauritanian national living in Philadelphia, has been arrested on charges of illegally voting in several federal elections dating back to at least 2008, federal authorities said. FOX News reported that Mahady Sacko, 50, is accused of registering and casting ballots despite not being a U.S. citizen, according to a criminal affidavit.

"The reason they [Democrats] oppose it [the SAVE America Act] is because this is their game plan," Johnson said. "Flood America with millions of illegal immigrants, send them into sanctuary cities and states. Plump up the census. Plump up your members of Congress, but also do everything you can to degrade the control of our elections.

He added: "They want to make it easy to cheat. So this is a hill they are more than willing to die on."