Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Donald Trump’s loss within the 2020 election, has been appointed to a senior place within the U.S. Division of Place of birth Safety by which she’ll lend a hand oversee the country’s election infrastructure.
Honey is a protege of Cleta Mitchell, a attorney who attempted to lend a hand Trump overturn the 2020 election effects. In 2024, ProPublica reported that Honey had performed a key position in Mitchell’s behind-the-scenes effort to switch Georgia’s election laws to permit Republican officers to contest a possible Trump loss in that 12 months’s presidential race. Honey additionally promoted election conspiracy theories, together with one Trump cited in a speech to his fans ahead of they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Although states do the on-the-ground paintings of working elections, DHS helps them with duties past their capacities, akin to protective IT infrastructure and voter databases from international intrusions. The company, with bipartisan strengthen, took in this position within the aftermath of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Mavens on vote casting and state election officers warned that Honey’s appointment as DHS’ deputy assistant secretary of election integrity may erode believe between state and federal officers, prompting states to not percentage data with the company.
“We’re witnessing a perilous development: the elevation of identified bad-faith actors like Heather Honey,” mentioned Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, in a observation, bringing up Honey’s “well-documented historical past of spreading election lies which have been debunked in court docket.”
Fontes known as her involvement with DHS “deeply troubling” and mentioned “when the company offers a platform to people who have actively labored to erode public believe, it turns into more difficult to view DHS as a competent spouse in election safety.”
A DHS spokesperson didn’t resolution questions from ProPublica on Honey’s appointment or the precise nature of her tasks. Honey didn’t reply to calls or emails. The White Space additionally didn’t reply to a request for remark. Her identify is indexed at the group’s management construction on-line, and her appointment was once first reported through the website online Democracy Docket.
Within the first Trump management, the government arrange systems designed to defend U.S. elections from international interference, together with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company, an arm of DHS. However Trump soured in this and different projects after the director of CISA publicly rebutted his claims that the 2020 election was once stolen.
For the reason that get started of the second one Trump presidency, the management has gutted the ones systems, slicing loads of workers at CISA. Its director, Chris Krebs, is now underneath federal investigation, DHS has mentioned; Krebs instructed CNN that the investigation gave the impression to be an act of political retribution. The Justice Division has additionally rolled again a program geared toward combatting international affect campaigns. Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi wrote in a memorandum that the Justice Division’s program was once disbanded to “loose assets to deal with extra urgent priorities, and finish dangers of additional weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion.”
David Becker, the chief director of the Middle for Election Innovation and Analysis, a nonprofit involved in construction believe in American elections, mentioned the cuts had dismantled “just about all” of DHS’ capability to give protection to election infrastructure. He mentioned state elections officers feared that Honey’s appointment, mixed with this system cuts, signaled the Trump management’s intent to do away with bulwarks of truthful U.S. elections.
“The hiring of an election conspiracy theorist with out a election wisdom or experience is the fruits of this reversal,” Becker mentioned. “DHS now seems poised to transform a number one amplifier of false election conspiracies driven through our enemies.”
Two assets accustomed to Honey’s hiring at DHS mentioned she started running for the company ultimate week. An organizational chart dated Aug. 18 at the division’s website online identifies her as a pace-setter within the company’s Workplace of Technique, Coverage and Plans. Her place wasn’t on a model of the website online archived in July, and officers in former administrations mentioned that there’s been no such process prior to now.
It’s now not transparent but what Honey will oversee, however former DHS officers mentioned that deputy assistant secretaries are generally the company’s most sensible mavens of their topic spaces. They’re ceaselessly keen on drafting govt orders and crafting insurance policies. Additionally they function liaisons to the White Space and the Nationwide Safety Council.
Since Honey began, Trump has introduced “a motion to eliminate” mail-in ballots and vote casting machines by means of govt order, regardless that a most sensible aide due to this fact mentioned the management would pursue the ones targets via legislative motion. DHS has additionally threatened to bring to an end about $28 million in grants to lend a hand states get ready for terrorism and failures in the event that they don’t alternate vote casting laws to adapt to the management’s priorities, NPR has reported.
Honey’s tasks most likely would come with serving to to arrange the federal government’s coverage responses if international actors make intrusions into the country’s election methods, former officers mentioned. To do that, and to evaluate the safety of election infrastructure, any person in her place would generally have get admission to to labeled data, together with the federal government’s election-related intelligence.
Mavens expressed worry about Honey’s portfolio, given her historical past of spreading incorrect information.
“Heather Honey’s previous deceptive claims about vote counts in Pennsylvania, amongst different issues, have helped gas false conspiracy theories about stolen elections,” mentioned Larry Norden, an election knowledgeable on the Brennan Middle for Justice at NYU Legislation, a nonpartisan legislation and coverage staff.
Prior to turning into swept up within the “Forestall the Thieve” motion, Honey had no revel in within the federal executive or as an election administrator, running as a Pennsylvania-based non-public investigator.
After the 2020 election, she changed into a contractor for a Republican-backed audit in the hunt for evidence of fraud in ballots forged in Maricopa County, Arizona. In keeping with emails between workers running at the evaluation, which ended up reaffirming Biden’s win, Honey helped draft the overall record.
Since then, Honey has led a minimum of 3 organizations trustworthy to reworking election methods in tactics championed through conservatives, akin to tightening eligibility necessities for other people to be on voter rolls. Contributors of Honey’s Pennsylvania Honest Elections, a state bankruptcy of Mitchell’s national Election Integrity Community, have challenged the eligibility of hundreds of citizens to be on voter rolls.
Honey has additionally been keen on a lot of different efforts to grow to be elections across the nation, together with a a hit push to get many states with Republican management to drag out of a bipartisan interstate partnership to percentage information to make vote casting extra protected.
Do you’ve data you’ll percentage about Heather Honey or elections paintings being completed within the federal executive, particularly on the Division of Place of birth Safety? Touch reporter Doug Bock Clark at doug.clark@propublica.org or on Sign at 678-243-0784. For those who’re focused on confidentiality, take a look at our recommendation at the maximum protected tactics to percentage pointers.
Christopher Bing and William Turton contributed reporting.
