DOGE Fires 130 CISA Election Security Staff -- Agency's Role in Defending Against Election Interference Severely Degraded

DOGE fired 130 employees from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), including 17 election security staff who had been placed on administrative leave earlier in February. A judge later reinstated the employees, but they were immediately placed back on administrative leave. The gutting of CISA's election security division -- which had been responsible for defending against foreign election interference, disinformation campaigns, and hacking of voting systems -- came as the Trump administration also removed its director and replaced election security officials with political appointees. CISA had been a top target of Trump allies since 2020, when it debunked election fraud claims through its "Rumor Control" website.