The Trump administration has appointed a conservative researcher who falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen to a top “election integrity” post at the Department of Homeland Security.
A DHS leadership chart updated on Aug. 18 shows Pennsylvania activist Heather Honey was politically appointed as deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the department’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans. The position didn’t exist under President Joe Biden.
The appointment has raised eyebrows, given that Honey advanced baseless theories about the 2020 presidential election and has now been elevated into a position of authority. Officials and experts have warned that the appointment could erode public trust in the federal agency.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS, the White House, and Honey for comment.
Honey, who runs investigations, consulting, and training firm Haystack Group, emerged as one of the most prominent figures promoting false claims of widespread fraud after the 2020 election. President Donald Trump cited her allegations as he sought to challenge and overturn his defeat.
On the day of the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump pushed a false claim that appeared to have come from Honey herself, Democracy Docket reported.
“In Pennsylvania, you had 205,000 more votes than you had voters,” Trump told a rally shortly before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, said in a statement cited by ProPublica that the U.S. is “witnessing a dangerous trend” with the “deeply troubling” appointment of “known bad-faith actors” like Honey.
He cited her “well-documented history of spreading election lies that have been debunked in court.”
Fontes added: “When the agency gives a platform to individuals who have actively worked to erode public trust, it becomes harder to view DHS as a reliable partner in election security.”
Senior White House adviser Kari Lake, another MAGA election denier, welcomed the appointment, writing on X: “This is the most incredible news. America, you should be very, very happy about this.”
Stephen Richer, politician, lawyer, and adjunct scholar with Cato’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, questioned how qualified Honey is for the role, saying she “had no experience in election administration or election law prior to 2020.”
“Re: Heather Honey appointment…the percentage of unqualified nut jobs has gone way up,” he began on X. “She is not smart. She is not qualified. She is not talented. She is crazy.”
“In Arizona, my staff spent hundreds of hours fulfilling her many, many public records requests and responding to her wildly inaccurate claims about election administration, some of which were included in the failed, ridiculous audit by the Cyber Ninjas,” he wrote.
Richer added in a savage takedown: “If you’d asked me in 2021, I’d have said that Heather Honey was better qualified to be in an insane asylum than investigative law enforcement.”
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