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Markwayne Mullin, the newly appointed leader of Homeland Security, organized a meeting with a group advocating for adebunked claimabout election software connected to Venezuela that is alleged to have been used to influence U.S. votes, meeting with the Trump campaign three weeks prior to the 2024 election,Raw Story has learned.

Martin Rodil, a consultant based in the Washington, D.C. region, met with Susie Wiles — who was then the co-campaign manager and is now the chief of staff to President Donald Trump — at Mar-a-Lago in October 2024. Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com, claimed that Mullin, who was then a U.S. senator, facilitated this meeting.

Also Read: Election conspiracy theorists allege that Markwayne Mullin arranged a meeting with the 2024 Trump campaign.

Allegations regarding election software allegedly under the control of Venezuelan leadership were a significant part of unsuccessful legal cases filed by attorney Sidney Powell aiming to reverse the 2020 presidential election result in favor of Joe Biden. Recently, following the U.S. military action against Venezuela and as Republicans encounter challenges in the upcoming midterm elections, Trump supporters who have access to the administration are starting to bring these claims back into the spotlight.

Byrne praised the selection of Mullin to head DHS “as an excellent choice by President Trump” in anX postEarlier this month, he added that Mullin “got my partner into” Mar-a-Lago in October 2024, and that his colleague “spent three days explaining to the team there about the elections, Venezuela, and the actions that needed to be taken on November 5.”

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Byrne confirmed to Raw Story that his “partner” was Rodil.

Byrne was abroad during that period and missed the meeting, but he referred to himself as a member of a “three-person team,” which included Rodil and Gary Berntsen, a former CIA senior operations officer, responsible for compiling a set of information to deliver to the Trump campaign and Elon Musk. Berntsen, in turn, characterized Rodil in aninterviewpartnering with far-right podcaster Lara Logan, stating that Byrne “funded” a group of “Venezuelan whistleblowers” that he and Rodil put together.

A message sent to the White House Press Office requesting input from Wiles for this article remained unanswered.

During his interview with Logan, which appeared in November 2025 prior to the U.S. military’s invasion of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, Berntsenclaimedthat the electronic voting systems firm Smartmatic, by selling a subsidiary to competitor Dominion Voting Systems, acquired “control” over more than 20 percent of the U.S. market, “mainly in the swing states crucial for electing the president.” He continued by asserting that Smartmatic has “two objectives: first, to manipulate elections, and second, to obstruct audits.”

The group stated that Smartmatic was initially established in Venezuela to manage elections and was under the control of Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

In a different interview with Logan in January, Rodilclaimedthat Cuba, China, Russia, and Iran have been influencing U.S. elections via election software managed by Venezuela.

And they install their own software — the Venezuelan narco-software within that company,” Rodil stated. “So, for many years in the U.S., the American people have been voting on a software developed through a drug cartel.

A judge in Delaware ruledIn September 2024, it was stated that those allegations are untrue, with the assertion that “claims about Smartmatic software or voting machines changing the outcomes” of the 2020 election “are not accurate” in a defamation case initiated by the election technology firm against the far-right network Newsmax.

It remains uncertain if Berntsen attended the meeting with Wiles and Rodil, but in his conversation with Logan, he recounted a presentation that aligns with the Mar-a-Lago gathering.

“About a month prior to the election, we presented it to the Trump team,” hesaidWe approached them and presented the outline. They examined it with shock. And they had genuine worries.

Berntsen and Byrne claim that Trump is aware of their statements, and their argument is supported by a post on TruthSocial.postin which the president expanded on Logan’s interview with Berntsen.

“We need to concentrate all our power and strength on ELECTION FRAUD!!” Trump wrote, while posting a link to the video of Berntsen’s interview.

Mullin allowed entry to the doors of Mar-a-Lago for election skeptics

Both Byrne and Berntsen mentioned that Mullin assisted them in gaining access to Mar-a-Lago.

Byrne told Raw Story Prior to the Mar-a-Lago meeting, the team reached out to members of the House Freedom Caucus, such as Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), before the 2024 election, but these members considered the information to be “too sensitive.” According to Byrne, Mullin was open to providing assistance.

“That man saved America since he was the one who got my colleagues into Mar-a-Lago,” Byrne stated.

Berntsen similarly praisedMullin as “one politician in America” who “was not afraid.”

Mullin was unavailable for comment on this story, and an email sent to the Department of Homeland Security remained unanswered.

However, during an interview with far-right podcaster Benny Johnson in December, Mullin indicated that he was willing to entertain baseless allegations suggesting Venezuela might interfere in U.S. elections.

“Venezuela has served as a center for this,” MullintoldJohnson stated, “There is a connection between China and Russia that is also part of this situation. We are aware that they have attempted to interfere in our elections… We also permitted these investors to be involved in some areas we believed were impenetrable, including certain aspects of our election processes and the way we approach them.” [sic]

Mullin has a background in questioning election results. While serving as a House representative, Mullin cast a voteagainstcertifying Joe Biden as the victor in the 2020 election. During his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month, when questioned about who won the election, Mullin would onlysay, “We are aware that President Joe Biden took the oath of office.”

Fears that Trump might send ICE to voting stations

As the secretary of Homeland Security, Mullin now supervises the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, which, among other responsibilities, isresponsibleto collaborate with state and local governments and the private sector in addressing threats to the country’s electoral systems.

The Department of Homeland Security also encompasses Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, two organizations that have evolved into paramilitary units that haveracially profiled immigrants while violently arresting and even killingimmigrants and non-combatant civilians during the operation in cities under Democratic rule, which many locals have seen as an “occupationDuring his confirmation hearing, Mullin stated he would be open to sending federal agents to voting stations ‘if there was a specific threat.’

Steve Bannon, former chief strategist at the White House and a key supporter of the president,saidon his podcast last week, he mentioned that the recent presence of ICE agents at U.S. airports might act as “a trial, a case study to refine ICE’s role in the 2026 midterm elections.”

Meanwhile, Trump saidDuring a recent appearance on the podcast hosted by former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, the president urged Republicans to “take control of the voting process” in at least 15 states and “nationalize” elections. Before making this call to action, the president expressed frustration, stating that “these people were brought to our country, and they vote illegally.” (No evidence has been found of widespread systemic voter fraud involving immigrants or any other group.)

Individuals who question election results have historically supported claims of foreign involvement in American elections, using these as a rationale for the president to declare emergency measures under national security provisions.

The 2024 gathering at Mar-a-Lago is not the initial instance where Byrne has participated in a collective initiative to present unusual allegations of election fraud to Trump’s close associates — and urge the president to take charge of electoral processes.

In December 2020, Byrne, Powell, and former Lt. General Michael Flynn appeared at the Oval Office andclaimedthat Venezuela had interfered in the 2020 election, whilerecommendingthat Trump take control of voting equipment in critical counties or send the National Guard to conduct a new election.

Trump did not follow the suggestion to take control of the voting systems and hold a new election at that moment. Instead, a few hours later, the president issued atweetbringing his followers to Washington, D.C. on January 6, stating, “Be there, it’s going to be intense!”

Last week, as a guest host on “InfoWars” — the program led by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has been mandated to pay a $1.4 billion defamation settlement to the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims — Byrne once more encouraged Trump to meddle in an election that will shape the nation’s power dynamics.

“He must do it — he can’t accomplish it via the legislature and the [Department of Justice],” Byrnesaid. “He must utilize his wartime powers, national security authorities, the Department of War, or deploy the National Guard and conduct a straightforward, traditional election as we instruct Burma on how to do it. In the end, he can accomplish everything — and he must — in the context of a national emergency.”