A newly installed top intelligence official in the Trump administration appeared on a so-called election integrity call with leading figures in the election denial movement in 2024, and has been repeatedly praised by the MAGA activist who coordinated the meeting.

The New York Times reported on June 26 that former Republican National Committee official Christina Norton would serve as chief of staff in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence under Bill Pulte, its acting director. From the Times:

Mr. Pulte’s decision to put Ms. Norton in the powerful post is likely to further fuel concerns among Democrats, intelligence officials and state and local election administrators that he intends to focus on hunting for evidence of election fraud at the behest of President Trump.
Mr. Trump has said Mr. Pulte is expected to work on election security matters, prompting fears by some officials that he could try to influence the midterm elections. Other officials expect him to declassify documents related to issues that have preoccupied Mr. Trump, including the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
While at the R.N.C., Ms. Norton oversaw a poll watcher program that included conservative conspiracy theorists, including Jack Posobiec, who helped spread the false “Pizzagate” stories about child abuse at a restaurant in Washington.

In Norton’s capacity overseeing the RNC’s so-called election integrity initiative, she attended an April 4, 2024, zoom call coordinated by Steve Stern, a right-wing podcaster who regularly convenes such meetings.

Stern has been a central figure in what former Trump adviser Steve Bannon refers to as the “precinct strategy,” a way for grassroots MAGA activists to participate directly in election administration — and potentially undermine the results.

During Norton’s presentation on the 2024 call, she cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

“Certainly, there is no question that in 2020 Democrats and their far-left allies exploited the pandemic to disregard election laws on the books,” Norton said. “States altered their voting procedures in the middle of an election year, in the middle of a pandemic, without time for meaningful adoption of safeguards.” (There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.)

Stern repeatedly praised Norton over the course of 2024, both before and after Trump’s win, in appearances on Bannon’s War Room podcast. On the day of the April 4 call, Stern said Norton was working “hard on letting the people know that she's really in the game,” adding: “Christina Norton's phenomenal."

Bannon praised Norton’s presence on the call and the emerging “symbiotic relationship” between “new management of the RNC” and outside groups.

In October 2024, Stern appeared on War Room again and claimed Trump won in 2020. “We need to see how these people are going to cheat because he can win the election like he did in 2020 and lose because they're going to bring in all these votes,” Stern said, adding: “Christina Norton is doing a fantastic job."

After Trump’s victory the following month, Stern detailed the close working relationship between Norton at the RNC and his network of so-called election integrity activists.

“Not only did we get out to vote and get out to vote early, but we protected the vote with Christina Norton from the RNC, which took me a lot of time to work with her, but we did it,” Stern said. He added: “I got a gold star from Christina Norton, who we're going to try to get on tomorrow, from the RNC, who helped us so much."

A former U.S. intelligence official told MS NOW that Norton’s appointment “signals as clearly as could be that Pulte has been put at ODNI to misuse the awesome power of the U.S. intelligence community to interfere in the upcoming midterm elections.” Neither Pulte nor Norton appear to have any relevant experience in intelligence or national security.

Norton also served as Pulte’s top aide at the federal housing agency he oversees. In that role, Pulte has used the agency to target Trump’s political opponents, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Bannon has been a major booster of Pulte’s, suggesting that the acting director of national intelligence would “get to the bottom of the 2020 stolen election,” possibly through a theoretical upcoming “task force.” Bannon also supported Trump’s decision to pull the nomination of Jay Clayton to head ODNI in a move that cleared the way for Pulte to take the role in an acting capacity.

Trump has staffed the government with prominent election deniers, including MAGA activist and right-wing media figure Heather Honey, who now works for the office within the Department of Homeland Security that oversees elections.

Update (6/30/26): One day after this blog was published, Bannon praised Pulte’s hiring of Norton as “one of the top election fraud people in all of the RNC to be his chief of staff.” Bannon said Pulte is “signaling where he's going on this,” adding that “my understanding is that there is [sic] going to be real revelations about the stealing of the 2020 election.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters