Disgraced Venezuelan generals accused of seeking Trump deal with election conspiracy lies

Source: Raw Story · Bias: Far Left

Summary

While Donald Trump’s polling numbers continue to slip amidst a rudderless and costly war with Iran that is sending gas prices soaring, he appears to be laying the groundwork to intervene in the upcoming midterm elections with a steady drip of rhetorical provocations and administrative actions.And, while he claims not to be considering calling a pre-election national emergency, at least two former Venezuelan military officials have offered intelligence that fits a scheme long embraced by election conspiracists for the president to seize extraordinary powers based on the claim of foreign interference.Hugo Carvajal Barrios, a retired general and the former head of Venezuelan military intelligence who faces life in prison after pleading guilty to narco-terrorism, said in an open letter to Trump that “regime operatives maintain relationships with election officials and voting-machine companies inside your country.“I do not claim that every election is stolen, but I state with certainty that elections can be rigged with the software — and it has been used to do so,” Carvajal Barrios said in the letter, which was first published by the conservative outlet Dallas Express.Clíver Alcalá Cordones, a former Venezuelan general who is currently serving a sentence of more than 20 years for material support for terrorists, has similarly offered to testify in an open letter to Trump about alleged election fraud. Alcalá Cordones’ letter also claims that Delcy Rodriguez, who took power in the country after the U.S. military seized former President Nicolás Maduro, and her brother Jorge retain control of a vast election-rigging apparatus with the ability to alter elections outside of Venezuela.Election deniers have reportedly circulated a draft executive order in recent months urging Trump to declare a national emergency based on a claim that China interfered in the 2020 election, which is contradicted by the official findings of the U.S. intelligence community.Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who represents election denier Patrick Byrne in a defamation lawsuit brought by Liberty Voting (formerly Dominion Voting System), is among those who have reportedly worked on the proposed executive order. Byrne participated in a December 2020 meeting at the White House in which Trump was urged to seize voting machines and deploy the National Guard to re-run the election. Byrne told Raw Story he is part of a group that approached Carvajal Barrios in prison.In February, Trump told podcaster Dan Bongino that Republicans should “take over the voting” in at least 15 states and “nationalize” elections. Last week, he issued an executive order that was not as far-reaching as the one promoted by Ticktin, but that nonetheless requires states to establish voting lists by cross-referencing data from the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is housed by the Department of Homeland Security.Voting rights groups, joined by national Democratic Party organizations and attorneys general, promptly sued to block the executive order, arguing that “the order violates and subverts the separation of powers by lawlessly arrogating to the president authority to declare election rules and dictate election administration outcomes down to the individual voter by executive fiat.”Max Flugrath, spokesperson for the voting rights group Fair Fight Action, said it wouldn’t surprise him if Venezuela winds up playing a role in Trump’s efforts to meddle in the midterm elections.“Trump appears to be increasingly desperate to interfere with the 2026 election,” Flugrath told Raw Story. “The voter suppression SAVE Act has stalled, his demand to rig voting maps has fallen short of the blowout Republicans needed, and the far-right Supreme Court justices haven’t ruled on cases Republicans see as critical to their victory. After his executive order — which is so blatantly unconstitutional it should be considered an angry press release — I wouldn’t put anything past him.”Asked if the president is considering issuing a national emergency order on security grounds to deploy federal assets during the midterms, the White House referred Raw Story to a comment Trump made to a reporter in February in which he said, “No, I’ve never heard of that.”He also asked the reporter: “Who told you that?”The White House did not respond to Raw Story’s question about whether Trump has reviewed the open letters from Carvajal Barrios and Alcalá Cordones.As previously reported by Raw Story, Markwayne Mullin, now secretary of Homeland Security, helped a consultant linked to Byrne arrange a meeting with the Trump campaign to discuss election fraud and Venezuela in October 2024.Actionable intelligence on Tren de AraguaGary Berntsen, a retired CIA senior operations officer who is part of Byrne’s group, directly appealed to Trump in a video posted in June 2025, as Carvajal Barrios was preparing to go on trial in Manhattan.“Carvajal’s firsthand testimony is key to...

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Disgraced Venezuelan generals accused of seeking Trump deal with election conspiracy lies
Raw Story

Disgraced Venezuelan generals accused of seeking Trump deal with election conspiracy lies

Far Left

While Donald Trump’s polling numbers continue to slip amidst a rudderless and costly war with Iran that is sending gas prices soaring, he appears to be laying the groundwork to intervene in the upcoming midterm elections with a steady drip of rhetorical provocations and administrative actions.And, while he claims not to be considering calling a pre-election national emergency, at least two former Venezuelan military officials have offered intelligence that fits a scheme long embraced by election conspiracists for the president to seize extraordinary powers based on the claim of foreign interference.Hugo Carvajal Barrios, a retired general and the former head of Venezuelan military intelligence who faces life in prison after pleading guilty to narco-terrorism, said in an open letter to Trump that “regime operatives maintain relationships with election officials and voting-machine companies inside your country.“I do not claim that every election is stolen, but I state with certainty that elections can be rigged with the software — and it has been used to do so,” Carvajal Barrios said in the letter, which was first published by the conservative outlet Dallas Express.Clíver Alcalá Cordones, a former Venezuelan general who is currently serving a sentence of more than 20 years for material support for terrorists, has similarly offered to testify in an open letter to Trump about alleged election fraud. Alcalá Cordones’ letter also claims that Delcy Rodriguez, who took power in the country after the U.S. military seized former President Nicolás Maduro, and her brother Jorge retain control of a vast election-rigging apparatus with the ability to alter elections outside of Venezuela.Election deniers have reportedly circulated a draft executive order in recent months urging Trump to declare a national emergency based on a claim that China interfered in the 2020 election, which is contradicted by the official findings of the U.S. intelligence community.Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who represents election denier Patrick Byrne in a defamation lawsuit brought by Liberty Voting (formerly Dominion Voting System), is among those who have reportedly worked on the proposed executive order. Byrne participated in a December 2020 meeting at the White House in which Trump was urged to seize voting machines and deploy the National Guard to re-run the election. Byrne told Raw Story he is part of a group that approached Carvajal Barrios in prison.In February, Trump told podcaster Dan Bongino that Republicans should “take over the voting” in at least 15 states and “nationalize” elections. Last week, he issued an executive order that was not as far-reaching as the one promoted by Ticktin, but that nonetheless requires states to establish voting lists by cross-referencing data from the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is housed by the Department of Homeland Security.Voting rights groups, joined by national Democratic Party organizations and attorneys general, promptly sued to block the executive order, arguing that “the order violates and subverts the separation of powers by lawlessly arrogating to the president authority to declare election rules and dictate election administration outcomes down to the individual voter by executive fiat.”Max Flugrath, spokesperson for the voting rights group Fair Fight Action, said it wouldn’t surprise him if Venezuela winds up playing a role in Trump’s efforts to meddle in the midterm elections.“Trump appears to be increasingly desperate to interfere with the 2026 election,” Flugrath told Raw Story. “The voter suppression SAVE Act has stalled, his demand to rig voting maps has fallen short of the blowout Republicans needed, and the far-right Supreme Court justices haven’t ruled on cases Republicans see as critical to their victory. After his executive order — which is so blatantly unconstitutional it should be considered an angry press release — I wouldn’t put anything past him.”Asked if the president is considering issuing a national emergency order on security grounds to deploy federal assets during the midterms, the White House referred Raw Story to a comment Trump made to a reporter in February in which he said, “No, I’ve never heard of that.”He also asked the reporter: “Who told you that?”The White House did not respond to Raw Story’s question about whether Trump has reviewed the open letters from Carvajal Barrios and Alcalá Cordones.As previously reported by Raw Story, Markwayne Mullin, now secretary of Homeland Security, helped a consultant linked to Byrne arrange a meeting with the Trump campaign to discuss election fraud and Venezuela in October 2024.Actionable intelligence on Tren de AraguaGary Berntsen, a retired CIA senior operations officer who is part of Byrne’s group, directly appealed to Trump in a video posted in June 2025, as Carvajal Barrios was preparing to go on trial in Manhattan.“Carvajal’s firsthand testimony is key to...

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