Trump's midterm meddling escalates as conspiracist spy chief triggers scheme: report

President Donald Trump's maneuver to install a conspiracist atop the nation's intelligence apparatus may have dire consequences for November's midterm elections, a new report warns.

Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency with no known intelligence experience, takes over this month as acting director of national intelligence.

The new spy chief will inherit a suppressed government report on voting machine vulnerabilities that some in the White House admit could undermine U.S. elections, Reuters reported.

As Pulte comes in, there is a new push to release the controversial report, Reuters reporter Erin Banco revealed on X Friday. Democrats have feared the move is part of an election-interference plot.

Both a White House faction and Democrats have warned the report could damage U.S. elections — for very different reasons.

Some White House officials fear releasing it could shake Republican confidence in the voting machines their own voters use, three sources told Reuters.

Democrats fear something darker: that the administration would use the findings to pressure states into switching to paper ballots — a move critics warn could sow chaos ahead of November.

All sources said they were unaware of any evidence of vote manipulation in U.S. elections.

Pulte's record outside the intelligence world alarmed watchdogs long before Friday. The Government Accountability Office launched an investigation into whether he misused sensitive financial data at the Federal Housing Finance Agency to manufacture mortgage fraud allegations against Trump's political enemies, including a sitting U.S. senator, a state attorney general, and a Federal Reserve governor.

"I think, unfortunately, it appears there may be a coordinated effort to try to interfere in the 2026 midterms," Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters.

"I'm worried about his willingness to take a fabricated piece of intelligence, or a raw piece of intelligence that has not been verified, and use it as an excuse to interfere in the elections," Warner added.

Trump canceled the June 17 confirmation hearing for his own DNI nominee, Jay Clayton, who had drawn rare bipartisan support, blocking the one congressional offramp available to replace Pulte.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Trump "deliberately" kept the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act lapsed to protect Pulte's hold on the post.

"He may find out some things about the rigged elections," Trump said in the Oval Office when asked what qualified Pulte for the role.