Top WA elections official threatened, doxxed after challenging Trump campaign's election misinformation

Just before Washington’s 12 electors cast their votes on Monday, Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman broke down.

“As you can see this is getting to me today,” she said.

It’s not clear what brought Wyman to tears, but her office confirmed on Monday that it has notified the Department of Homeland Security and the state’s own counterterrorism agency, the Washington State Fusion Center, about a death threat against one of her employees.

The target was Lori Augino, who is director of elections for the Office of the Secretary of State.

A website shows Augino’s face inside crosshairs along with her email, her home address and a photo of her home.

It says she’s being targeted, in part, because as president of the National Association of State Election Directors, she called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history,” with no evidence that any voting system deleted, lost or manipulated votes.

The website also threatened to assassinate election officials and governors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as employees of voting-machine manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems.

The threats come in the wake of the Trump campaign spreading misinformation for several months in an attempt to discredit the 2020 election results, and refusing to endorse a peaceful transition of power come January.

On Sunday, Jim Walden, an attorney for former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Christopher Krebs, filed a lawsuit that accused the Trump campaign of “fomenting a campaign of violence” against election officials like Augino.

In a statement issued Monday, Walden wrote, “If blood is spilled, it is on the hands of the president, his campaign, his lawyers, and the silent Republicans standing in the president’s shadow.”

The death-threat website was apparently created last week, and its creators are unknown. It is titled “Enemies of the People” — a phrase Trump has used repeatedly in reference to journalists.

Later on Monday, the top two Republican lawmakers in Olympia condemned the threats of violence.

“The harassment and threats to state election officials must stop. We categorically denounce these actions and any threats of political violence,” House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox and Senate Republican Leader John Braun wrote in a joint statement.

Wilcox and Braun also expressed “confidence” in Secretary Wyman and the outcome of the election, but added “we believe all credible allegations of election fraud – no matter how small or large – need to be brought forward and investigated.”

Monday evening, Wyman, a Republican, issued a statement on the threats via Twitter.

“This continued escalation of harassment and threats in the public sphere has to stop," she wrote. "Sites like this are appalling, and have no space in our democracy and the peaceful transition of power.”