(Republican Insider) – A report from The Western Journal has revealed that the Biden administration is now urging a federal judge not to put out any form of a report that contained information concerning potential flaws in equipment used in Georgia that was made by Dominion Voting Systems, despite both sides in the court case over the machines wanting at least a version of this report to be released.
U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg is now mulling over a release of a redacted version of a report put together by J. Alex Halderman, a computer science professor working at the University of Michigan, according to a report published by Just the News.
Totenberg has already shipped out the full, unredacted report to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, which is under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. She’s also indicated that she wants to put out a redacted version of Halderman’s report for the general public.
“CISA opposes that step, even though Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger supports the report becoming public, if only to prove his argument that the report isn’t credible,” the report from Western Journal said.
“Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case have suggested Totenberg release a redacted version of the report within 30 days of when it was sent to CISA, according to The Associated Press,” the report continued. “However, in a filing last week, CISA attorneys urged that the court hold off giving anything to anybody until the agency decides what should be released based on its Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure process.”
The filing then goes on to state that “premature disclosure of Dr. Halderman’s report, even in redacted form, could, in the event any vulnerabilities ultimately are identified, assist malicious actors and thereby undermine election security.”
It continues on, saying that CISA will let the court know when the review could be completed and how much information from it the public should have access to.
The filing then issues a warning that “CISA typically would not release a report such as Dr. Halderman’s at the conclusion of the CVD process; it would, however, disclose necessary information about any vulnerabilities and associated mitigations.”
The CISA was not pleased with even the idea of releasing a redacted version of the report to the public.
“CISA is particularly concerned about dissemination of potential vulnerabilities—even in redacted form—before CISA and the vendor have been able to address them through appropriate mitigation action. Such premature disclosure increases the risk that malicious actors may be able to exploit any vulnerabilities and threaten election security. CISA respectfully submits that, in order to best promote the security of the nation’s critical infrastructure, any vulnerabilities should be disclosed,” the filing stated.
The agency stated that it will provide a timeline at a later date, but then suggested that nothing will be happening quickly.
“CISA is thus committed to taking these steps expeditiously and will seek to complete the process as promptly as possible. But the timeline also depends on the actions of a range of other actors outside CISA’s control. A 30-day timeline may be impractical in this situation, despite best efforts and prioritization of this work,” the filing continued.
“CISA understands the urgency given the upcoming elections in which this voting equipment is presently planned to be used. Yet CISA can neither control how quickly any necessary mitigation measures are developed, made available, and implemented, nor at this time can CISA anticipate with any degree of reasonable certainty how long the process may take,” the filing stated.
CISA also stated in the filing that as part of its review it has to “coordinate between and work with the reporting source of the potential vulnerabilities (here, Dr. Halderman) and the vendor (here, Dominion), to analyze the potential vulnerabilities, including the risk they present; develop mitigation measures to mitigate the risk of the potential vulnerabilities, as needed; facilitate sufficient time for affected end users to obtain, test, and apply any recommended mitigation measures prior to full public disclosure of the potential vulnerability; and strive to ensure accurate and objective disclosures by the vendors.”
The report in question is part of a long-running suit that is attempting to change Georgia’s system for voting. But even more importantly, it’s part of a larger conversation concerning potential election fraud that might have occurred during the presidential election back in 2020.
The Western Journal report then says that as of now, there hasn’t been anyone who has provided any evidence or documentation that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt the Dominion machines were messed with in 2020.
Dominion as a company was the target of several post-election allegations, but decided to take action to fight back, filing several lawsuits against those who said the machines were part of an election fraud scheme.
“In its reporting, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has indicated that the Halderman report, completed last year, describes how someone could, in theory, hack the system to change votes, without saying whether or not this was ever accomplished,” the WJ report said.
“Georgia voters face an extreme risk that [ballot marking device]-based attacks could manipulate their individual votes and alter election outcomes,” Halderman went on to say in a signed statement filed with the court in 2021, as The Daily Beast reported in January.
“In a news release posted to the Georgia Secretary of State Office website on Jan. 27, Raffensperger called for releasing the report — to show that its criticisms of the state’s voting methods is unwarranted,” the report added.
The news release stated that the report is “not an objective, academic study by a non-biased actor. It is assertions by an individual who is paid to espouse opinions supporting the elimination of electronic voting systems to help a lawsuit brought by liberal activists, including one funded by Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight Action.”
“Sensationalized media articles and misleading reports from paid activists notwithstanding, Georgia’s election system is safe and secure,” Raffensperger stated in the news release.
The release also included a statement from Dominion President and CEO John Paulos, who slammed the review from Halderman.
“Security assessments of any system, including voting systems, should always include a holistic approach of all safeguards in place, including procedural and technical safeguards,” Poulus remarked in the release.
“There is a reason why U.S. voting systems rely on bipartisan election officials, poll-watchers, distributed passwords, access controls, and audit processes,” Poulus commented, going on to add that Halderman’s review “did not take this approach.”
“Dominion supports all efforts to bring real facts and evidence forward to defend the integrity of our machines and the credibility of Georgia’s elections,” he said.
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