An election hacker has reportedly been hired in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division

Happy Tuesday! Here's your Tuesday Tech Drop, some of the past week's top stories from the intersection of politics and technology.

The Justice Department appears to have hired someone convicted of hacking election websites — just as Donald Trump and his allies plot ways to meddle in the upcoming midterms .

Democracy Docket described David Levin's apparent hiring as one of the "most troubling" examples yet of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division hiring lawyers "who have taken extreme steps to undermine fair elections, as it rushes to put together a team to carry out Trump's anti-voting agenda."

Levin was charged with three felonies in 2016 after Florida investigators said he used a cyberattack to obtain credentials, then entered restricted portions of a county elections website, and separately accessed the state Division of Elections website. Levin later said he had wanted to look into "the integrity of elections." The charges were later reduced to two misdemeanors. Levin pleaded guilty, served 20 days in jail and received two years of probation. Now, images and video posted online suggest Levin has joined the DOJ's Civil Rights Division — the federal office charged with enforcing many of the nation's voting rights laws and that is now leading the Trump administration's nationwide grab for sensitive voter data.

Levin was charged with three felonies in 2016 after Florida investigators said he used a cyberattack to obtain credentials, then entered restricted portions of a county elections website, and separately accessed the state Division of Elections website.

Levin later said he had wanted to look into "the integrity of elections."

The charges were later reduced to two misdemeanors. Levin pleaded guilty, served 20 days in jail and received two years of probation.

Now, images and video posted online suggest Levin has joined the DOJ's Civil Rights Division — the federal office charged with enforcing many of the nation's voting rights laws and that is now leading the Trump administration's nationwide grab for sensitive voter data.

Democracy Docket also reported that Levin participated in a federal election monitoring operation in Minnesota earlier this month. The outlet said Levin and the DOJ didn't respond to its requests for comment.

White supremacists cheer local media's woes

The hollowing out of the local news media is a godsend to white nationalists. That idea was broached by far-right propagandist Kevin DeAnna in a video that surfaced from a white nationalist conference earlier this year in Rome, where he spoke about it in the context of targeting white rural voters. In response, I wrote about how the decline of local news allows bigotry to fester — and how DeAnna's comments serve as a warning to white America with the midterms approaching.

Trump's reported Live Nation intervention

A new report from The Wall Street Journal details how Trump pressured DOJ officials to reach a settlement in the federal government's antitrust case against concert promoter Live Nation shortly after holding an Oval Office meeting with the company's CEO.

Trump's financial disclosure forms show that his brokers made massive investments in the oil industry that are being enriched amid his war with Iran. I wrote about Trump and his family getting richer off the war economy, and I also discussed the topic on "Way Too Early" with Ali Vitali.

State Department's foreign propaganda push

The State Department has set aside $1 million to fund a grant for what it's calling an "independent journalism consortium" in Europe — its apparent term for a U.S.-funded propaganda outfit that's effectively designed to peddle bigotry about immigrants.

Journalist Charles Davis shined light on documents detailing the planned consortium via his blog, The Redoubt. Per the report:

While ostensibly nonpartisan — a requirement of federal law on foreign assistance — the "independent journalism" consortium would also produce content with a reactionary appeal. The State Department suggests that U.S.-funded reporters could, among other things, cover the "impact of mass migration on safety and rule of law" and "the role of government policy in contributing to mass migration."

The Trump administration reportedly is looking to equip U.S. Park Police in the nation's capital with Flock Safety's license plate readers, the surveillance tools that have been misused by police officers to stalk and harass people . Just last week, Trump used his favorite deflectionary tactic when a reporter asked about concerns surrounding Flock cameras.

A recent outbreak of MAGA infighting helped reveal that the Defense Department quietly hired a right-wing influencer named Jennica Pounds as what it's calling a "special government employee" after previously giving her credentials to act as a journalist in the Pentagon press corps. My colleague Brandy Zadrozny published a play-by-play on the spat between Pounds and State Department Undersecretary Sarah Rogers that ultimately shook the revelation loose.

Speaking of the Pentagon's disturbing influence over the press, one of the employees fired from the military-focused news outlet Stars and Stripes sat for an interview with MS NOW's Peter Alexander to discuss the recent ousters at the publication and how they underscore efforts by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to control press coverage about the military.

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