White House Declassifies Documents Alleging China Stole 220 Million Voter Files, Citing Widespread Election System Vulnerabilities
President Trump’s primetime address paired the release with a renewed push for the SAVE America Act, a national voter ID bill stalled in the Senate
President Trump used a primetime address from the White House on Thursday night to announce the declassification of a broad set of intelligence documents that, according to the administration, reveal vulnerabilities in America’s election system, including an alleged Chinese operation to acquire the personal data of 220 million American voters. The documents were posted publicly on a new White House election integrity page, and President Trump presented them as the basis for a renewed push to pass national voter identification legislation.
“Every American deserves to know that when they cast their vote, that vote will be counted accurately,” President Trump said during the address, arguing that the current system falls well short of that standard.
Ahead of the address, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the findings would “shock you if you have an honest eye,” and said the claims would be backed by documentation released the same evening, according to The Washington Times.
China’s alleged acquisition of voter data
The administration’s central claim, laid out on the White House’s election integrity page, is that China acquired 220 million U.S. voter files beginning in the 2020 election cycle, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and political party affiliations. President Trump said the released documents show China assigned a dedicated unit to the effort, and separately alleged that Beijing paid journalists to report negatively on his first-term administration. He further claimed that members of the U.S. intelligence community were aware of the data acquisition and did not share that information with him during his first term.
Election infrastructure vulnerabilities
A second batch of newly declassified intelligence community assessments, described on the White House’s release page as spanning January 2020 to June 2026, addresses the security of voting machines and ballot-counting systems nationwide. President Trump cited one assessment naming Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and unspecified non-state groups as adversaries with the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure. The released documents separately allege that the CIA obtained intelligence on a Venezuelan plot to digitally alter that country’s 2020 election results in a manner the administration says could evade detection even under an audit.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the agency produced the underlying intelligence reporting on Venezuela’s capabilities, adding that the newly declassified material “shed further light on China’s intentions” toward the 2020 election.
Michigan voter registration investigation
The release also includes what the administration describes as FBI files on a 2020 investigation into a Democratic-aligned get-out-the-vote organization raided by Michigan State Police in Muskegon, according to the White House release. The administration states the files include claims from canvassers, made to investigators, that they signed voter registration forms in other people’s names and submitted registrations for people who did not exist.
The administration alleges the Biden Justice Department did not move quickly on the case despite FBI agents believing crimes had occurred, and says FBI Director Kash Patel has been directed to pursue prosecution.
Noncitizens on state voter rolls
President Trump cited a Department of Homeland Security review during his address estimating that approximately 278,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in federal elections nationally. Separately, DHS sent letters dated July 10 to election officials in California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania stating that a preliminary review had identified more than 256,000 potential noncitizen registrations across those four states alone, according to Fox News Digital, which obtained copies of the letters.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the department compared publicly available voter registration records against federal immigration data. DHS said it identified 81,336 California registrants, 19,497 New Jersey registrants, 8,576 Nevada registrants and 8,594 Pennsylvania registrants whose names, dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers matched noncitizens in federal records. The department separately estimated that there could be as many as 190,832 potential noncitizen registrations in California, 35,152 in New Jersey, 15,903 in Nevada and 14,576 in Pennsylvania.
Editor's note, July 25: The above paragraph has been clarified to distinguish DHS's direct record matches from its broader preliminary estimates.
DHS characterized the findings as preliminary and asked state officials to work with the department to verify individual identities before taking action, with a response deadline of July 24. The letters note that many noncitizens, including lawful permanent residents and certain visa holders, are legally issued Social Security numbers, and that the SSN match was only one of several identifiers used, not a standalone determination of citizenship status.
The ask: the SAVE America Act
President Trump closed his remarks by calling on the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, a national voter identification bill that has stalled in the upper chamber. The administration is presenting Thursday’s disclosures as the evidentiary basis for the legislation, arguing that a system without voter ID, proof of citizenship requirements, or limits on mail balloting cannot be adequately verified given the vulnerabilities described in the release.
A note on sourcing
The claims in this piece originate from documents the administration declassified and characterized, from President Trump’s remarks during Thursday’s address, from CIA Director Ratcliffe’s public statement, and from letters DHS sent to four states, obtained by Fox News Digital. Readers can review the underlying documents directly at the White House’s election integrity page.
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