Trump is handcuffing his 'Stop the Steal' lawyer from seeing classified documents: report

Donald Trump’s obsession with proving that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him apparently has some limits, the Wall Street Journal is reporting

According to the Journal's report, the White House has been pursuing an elaborate investigation into alleged 2020 election improprieties, centered around campaign lawyer Kurt Olsen, who led Trump's failed "Stop the Steal" efforts four years ago. But when Olsen pushed a far-fetched Venezuelan vote-manipulation theory, even Trump officials couldn't maintain a straight face.

Olsen has briefed Trump on various allegations, demanded the declassification of documents, and requested up to $10 million in funding for his investigation. Prosecutors in Atlanta, Phoenix, and other cities have launched criminal investigations based on his theories. Yet Trump has resisted declassifying some documents and hasn't approved Olsen's full funding request — a potential sign of wavering confidence.

The breaking point came when DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin arranged a Palm Beach meeting between Trump officials and an unlikely duo: Gary Berntsen, a former CIA officer known for hunting Osama bin Laden, and Martín Rodil, a Venezuelan fixer, Raw Story reported.

For nearly three hours, the pair presented a slideshow with diagrams, documents, and videos purporting to show that Venezuelan operatives could manipulate U.S. voting machines to alter 2020 election results.

The reaction was telling: Trump officials were left "speechless" by what they viewed as a waste of time.

"They looked at it in horror," Berntsen said.

Some White House and Justice Department officials have openly disagreed with Olsen's declassification demands and his pursuit of the Venezuela conspiracy theory. The Venezuelan allegations have been briefed to federal prosecutors in Florida and Texas and triggered an investigation in Puerto Rico.

After the U.S. captured Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro, Trump amplified the Venezuela vote-rigging narrative on social media — contradicting his own team's earlier dismissal of the theory.