Sri Vijaya Puram, July 31: The White House has released a new set of declassified intelligence documents alleging that China and its proxies obtained voter registration data belonging to as many as 220 million Americans, as the Trump administration sought to make public intelligence assessments concerning foreign cyber activities targeting US elections.
According to a fact sheet issued by the White House Government Transparency Task Force, the release was approved by the directors of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. The documents were made public following President Donald Trump’s recent decision to declassify intelligence related to foreign election activities.
The fact sheet states that “The People’s Republic of China (China) and their proxies bought, stole, or hacked as many as 220 million Americans’ voter registration data.” It further says that China’s collection included data that was not publicly available.
Alongside the fact sheet, the White House also published what it described as the Intelligence Community’s official definition of “election interference,” distinguishing it from the broader concept of election influence.
According to the released definition, election influence includes overt and covert activities undertaken by foreign governments or their agents to directly or indirectly affect US elections, including candidates, political parties, voters, voter preferences or political processes. Election interference, the document states, is a narrower category focused on the technical aspects of elections, including voter registration, the casting and counting of ballots, and the reporting of election results.
The administration said this definition explicitly covers attempts by foreign governments to target voter registration systems or voter registration data.
The fact sheet also states that Intelligence Community documents from 2022 identified a Chinese Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) actor as having acquired voter registration data stored on commercial websites. According to the White House, CNE actors typically conduct cyber operations to obtain information that is not publicly available.
The declassified material further outlines potential risks associated with unauthorised access to voter registration information. According to the released documents, adversaries could alter voter registration data in ways that might prevent individuals or groups from voting, cause delays on election day or require voters to cast provisional ballots. The documents also state that registration data, where publicly available or commercially obtainable, could be used to tailor additional interference or influence activities.
The White House also disclosed details of the inter-agency process used in preparing President Trump’s July 16, 2026, speech on what the administration described as China’s election interference activities. It said representatives from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation coordinated with the White House during the preparation of the President’s remarks.
According to the fact sheet, the intelligence agencies approved the factual statements drawn from their documents that were included in the President’s speech.
The administration described the latest release as part of its broader effort to make newly declassified intelligence concerning foreign activities targeting US elections publicly available. The White House said the disclosure is intended to provide greater public access to intelligence assessments related to election security and foreign cyber operations.
