WASHINGTON, September 13 — Internal emails released to American Oversight under a Freedom of Information Act request show that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles personally connected two Arkansas-based election-denial activists with the Justice Department official then leading the administration’s election review effort, according to records reported by CNN. The exchanges, obtained from the Department of Justice, involve Ed Martin — at the time the pardon attorney and head of the Weaponization Working Group — Colonel Conrad Reynolds and Will Huff, and senior aides to Wiles.
The records indicate Wiles asked her chief of operations to make the introduction in August 2025, at a moment when Reynolds was already under scrutiny in his home state.
The Introduction
On August 19, 2025, Cam Sadler, then a special assistant to the president and Wiles’ chief of operations, emailed Huff to introduce him to Martin.
Sadler wrote that “Susie forwarded your meeting request along to me and requested that I connect you with Ed Martin,” describing Martin as the White House’s “Election Integrity czar” who “has his finger on the pulse of our efforts.” Huff replied that “Susie and I spoke about election security and moving forward and she agreed we need to be ready for the 2026 primary elections.” Three days later, on August 22, 2025, Martin, Reynolds and Huff met at DOJ headquarters. The timing is the detail that matters.
At the point of that introduction, the Arkansas Board of Election Commissioners had referred Reynolds to the state’s attorney general over allegations he violated state election law. He has since been charged in the matter. Reynolds and Huff co-host a podcast focused heavily on election conspiracy theories and opposition to voting machines.
Proposals for Overhauling Elections
In a follow-up “meeting recap” email to Martin the next day, Huff wrote that the activists had proposed a slate of election procedures for the White House to adopt as official policy. The measures included using hand-marked and hand-counted paper ballots, eliminating most mail and absentee voting, and limiting early voting. Huff later sent Martin a separate set of proposals for overhauling how states run elections.
Among them was a plan to invoke the Commerce Department’s national security authority to force states to abandon voting machines in favour of “hand-marked and hand-counted ballots” ahead of the 2026 midterms. Reynolds and Huff reportedly also raised the proposal during a two-and-a-half hour meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in August 2026.
Neither the White House nor the Commerce Department, nor Reynolds or Huff, responded to CNN’s request for comment by the time of publication. The records also show Wiles echoing false claims about the 2020 election, reportedly telling a private gathering earlier this year, “I think we’re going to find out [President Trump] actually did win” other states in the 2020 election.
The Reaction
Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight, said the records demonstrate how deeply election denialism is embedded in the administration. “Susie Wiles may be publicly portrayed as the voice of reason in this White House, but behind the scenes, she played matchmaker, helping to connect fringe election deniers with senior officials,” Chukwu said.
She added that Lutnick “reportedly gave these activists a direct audience as they promoted a plan to use the Commerce Department’s national-security powers to meddle in elections—a troubling sign given his evolving role carrying out the administration’s election agenda.” Chukwu went further: “With the midterms approaching, the administration is attempting to expand federal control and impose sweeping changes on state-run elections, creating confusion for voters and election officials. The election deniers aren’t knocking at the door anymore.
They’ve been invited inside. Their ideas are being elevated at the highest levels of the White House and increasingly shaping federal election policy.” The release lands as the administration faces scrutiny over federal election policy ahead of the 2026 midterms. What to watch next is whether the Commerce Department’s national security authority is formally invoked for election purposes, and whether the DOJ records prompt further congressional or oversight inquiries into the Wiles operation’s role in facilitating those contacts.
