The Department of Homeland Security has quietly hired Karen DiSalvo, a Pennsylvania attorney known for election-denial activism, who apparently drafted a federal letter threatening to withhold funding from states, according to Democracy Docket.

In a Friday article, Democracy Docket reported that a letter sent Monday from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin appears to have been authored by DiSalvo, based on metadata reviewed by the outlet. The letter warns that states will forfeit DHS grant money unless they conduct post-election paper-ballot audits. Its issuance comes as the Trump administration has sought to take control of states' election processes ahead of the midterms, including through mail-in ballots and voter roll data.

The letter is notable because elections in the United States are largely decentralized, with states and counties holding primary authority over voting administration, while DHS's grant funding — primarily distributed through agencies like FEMA — has historically not been conditioned on election-audit practices. Conditioning federal security funding on state audit behavior would represent a significant use of federal leverage over election administration, an area where states have long asserted constitutional primacy.

Federal personnel records place DiSalvo as a senior adviser in the DHS Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans — the same office where fellow election denier Heather Honey holds a senior election-integrity position. DiSalvo and Honey previously co-founded an anti-voting nonprofit in Pennsylvania, Democracy Docket noted. Their placement within the same policy office marks a continuation of a broader pattern in which advocates of disproven 2020 election claims have been appointed to federal posts with influence over election policy, a shift from prior administrations of both parties, which relied on career election-security officials.

DiSalvo has promoted the "TrumpWON" hashtag online and publicly defended Jacob Chansley, the January 6 rioter known as the "QAnon Shaman," according to Democracy Docket. Her legal record includes a lawsuit that Pennsylvania officials said sought to disenfranchise tens of thousands of overseas voters; courts repeatedly threw out those efforts, the outlet reported.

David Becker, a prominent elections expert who leads the Center for Election Innovation & Research, told Democracy Docket he was alarmed by DiSalvo's hiring.

"The administration dismantled the election cybersecurity expertise built up during the past two administrations, including Trump's first term, and has replaced that expertise and credibility with conspiracy theorists," Becker said. "Election officials of both parties tell me they can no longer trust the federal government as a partner in running secure elections."

The development comes ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, and how states respond to the audit-funding demand — whether by complying, litigating, or ignoring it — is likely to shape the escalating federal-state standoff over election authority.

In response to the report, DHS told Democracy Docket that it "does not comment on existing personnel."