The name Kurt Olsen is probably unfamiliar to most Americans, but he’s in a position the public probably ought to care about.
Olsen came to public prominence in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat as a campaign lawyer who pushed discredited and conspiratorial claims of voter fraud. Four months ago, however, the attorney took on a new job: He joined the Republican administration as a “special government employee” who would focus on the president’s defeat more than four years ago.
A Wall Street Journal report on his appointment noted that the attorney had taken an interest in voting machines, while he was “asking intelligence agencies for information about the 2020 election.”
Evidently, evidently, Olsen is getting what he requested. Politico reported:
President Donald Trump has directed top U.S. spy agencies to share sensitive intelligence about the 2020 election with his former campaign lawyer, known for pushing debunked theories of electoral fraud, according to four people with knowledge of the effort.
The intelligence that top U.S. spy agencies are furnishing to Kurt Olsen — now a temporary government employee in the White House — is meant to support a probe he is leading into whether Joe Biden’s 2020 election win was the result of fraud or other electoral irregularities, said the people, who, like others in this article, were granted anonymity for fear of retribution.
The Politico report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, added that Olsen has gained access to some sensitive compartmented intelligence programs, “which are among the most highly classified material stored by U.S. spy agencies,” and that if he runs into trouble reviewing highly classified intelligence reporting, Olsen simply “leans on Trump” to get what he wants.
Broadly speaking, there are a couple of angles to this that are worth keeping in mind. The first is the most obvious: It’s tough to defend having a conspiratorial election lawyer, known for pushing debunked theories, gaining access to what Politico described as “some of the government’s most sensitive spy material.” But the second element to this matters, too: For all of the president’s ridiculous rhetoric about his re-election defeat in 2020, we’re past the point at which the crusade is simply a matter of talk. With the “watch what they do, not what they say” maxim in mind, a focus on what Team Trump is doing presents an ugly and busy picture. The administration, just in recent weeks, has: The Olsen story, in other words, appears to be part of a larger campaign, driven by a president who still can’t accept the fact that he lost in 2020, all while announcing radical and unconstitutional ideas related to future elections. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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