Patrick Byrne Exposes Deep State Operations and Foreign Election Interference
In an interview, the founder of the America Project called the interference in the 2020 elections a successful coup.
Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne delivered one of the most explosive speeches of FreedomFest 2026 on July 9, laying out his secret life as a U.S. national intelligence asset and a systematic "soft coup" against the American republic. In a series of interviews with Restoration News, Byrne detailed the findings of his group, the America Project (TAP), in Belgrade, Serbia, where a server farm acted as a node of activity for international agents bent on disrupting the American elections in 2020.
This explosive set of revelations has all the hallmarks of a spy movie, but it actually happened. This ties directly to President Trump's speech on July 16, 2026, in which he began revealing declassified information about foreign influence in our elections, promising much more to come.
Patrick Byrne tells us how.
World War III Started Nov. 3, 2020
Introduced as a disruptor with degrees from Dartmouth, Cambridge, and a Stanford Ph.D. , Byrne framed his speech around what he called his "greatest entrepreneurial success: disrupting the Deep State." Overstock, he said, was essentially his "cover job."
In his interview with Restoration News, Byrne went further.
When asked how close we came to losing the republic in 2020, he said, "I would argue we did lose it for a time—they just didn’t hammer it home. We were never supposed to get out from under Biden and Harris. I don’t think we were really supposed to make it to the 2024 election. Thanks to [former Trump national security advisor] Gen. Michael Flynn and The American Project and the work we did, we kept things alive until we were about 18 months out from the election. That’s when it became real to people."
The discovery of the Belgrade server changed everything.
"That was their war room," he said. "They hacked elections from there. Everyone talks about voter rolls and mail-in ballots here, but at the end of the day, they pushed through whatever they needed from that data center in Serbia."
Byrne asserts that Russia, China, and Iran all had a hand in the destabilization effort, but it started as a joint Cuba-Venezuela venture. "My sense is that Russia started this out of Serbia back in the mid-1970s," he said. "There’s someone still involved who’s been there since then. When the Soviet Union fell and Russia weakened, China took over the project and has been managing it since around 2000." He said the direct voting machine efforts came later, but the destabilization efforts have gone on for decades.
"Serbia is essentially the westernmost satellite of the Chinese empire at this point," Byrne explained.
Asked if President Trump's operation in Venezuela had at least partial motivation in disrupting this network, Byrne said, "I can’t speak to what’s in Trump’s mind, but in mine, World War III started on November 3, 2020. That’s when they won by stealing the election. Cuba and Venezuela have to be dealt with first, then we move up the chain."
Byrne pulled no punches. "They launched an overthrow of the United States—and they were successful for a time. We got incredibly lucky to get it back, even if only for one term."
What Trump Will Expose
In response to a follow up question, Byrne told Restoration News to "set aside [Trump's] speech and focus on the documents released."
Senior Investigative Researcher Beth Brelje previously reported what WhiteHouse.Gov posted in regards to Venezuela:
"Today, we are releasing documents that show the CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot by the [Nicolás] Maduro regime in Venezuela to do exactly that—conspiring to digitally rig their own country's elections in 2020," a report at Whitehouse.gov reads. "This reporting included precise details about methods the regime developed to digitally alter vote totals in ways that could not be detected even with an audit. This intelligence underscores why we must take urgent action to ensure that our own systems can never be hacked or compromised."
Byrne reiterated this point, and noted the intelligence community already knows how vulnerable the electronic voting machines are. "This ties into broader IC assessments on vulnerabilities in electronic voting/ballot systems (exposed to adversaries like Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and non-state actors)," Byrne said. "It frames foreign capabilities (including Venezuela-linked tech/methods) as a national security threat with potential to subvert U.S. elections. It discusses Smartmatic's large Los Angeles County contract (~$282 million for 2020 voting tech), which has long been scrutinized due to the company's Venezuelan origins/founders and separate allegations (e.g., overbilling/slush funds in unrelated probes)."
It's all there, in the declassified documents on WhiteHouse.Gov.
The Complicit DSA and Useful Idiot Democrats
As mentioned earlier, the operation started as a joint Cuba-Venezuela venture. The next natural question: since we know members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has gone to both of those nations for training, and their national platform calls for the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution, how much involvement with this destabilization effort do they have?
Byrne has some ideas.
"A lot of Democrats are useful idiots," Byrne said, "but groups like the DSA and Black Lives Matter are directly funded and trained by Venezuela and others. The woman who founded Black Lives Matter openly said she received Marxist training in Venezuela. Code Pink and similar groups are tied to Chinese funding through people like Neville Roy Singham and Jodie Evans."
The bottom line, according to Byrne: "They’re not coming with tanks—at least not at first. They’re coming with subversion, information warfare, and cultural infiltration. Open Society and others are helping subvert us from within."
How Did Patrick Byrne Get Here?
In his speech on the main stage, Byrne recounted how everything began at FreedomFest 2015, when he spoke on Bitcoin. He was already working as a government intelligence asset, he says, when a Russian redhead named Maria Butina approached him afterward. He reported the contact as required by his security clearance and was given the green light to engage. The relationship turned romantic.
By early 2016, Byrne said he realized the operation was a setup to create a Russian scandal targeting the Republican Party, orchestrated through a chain of command that ran to then-CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey. He claimed he was directed to bribe Hillary Clinton with $18 million in Asian-sourced funds between late 2015 and early 2016.
The money, he alleged, constituted blackmail material: if Clinton defended Obamacare and stayed in line, the "flame stays low"; if she deviated, it could be used against her. The long-term plan, according to Byrne, was for Obama's people at the DOJ to control her for eight years, after which Michelle Obama would run for president.
Setting Up Stings on the Deep State
In September 2016, Byrne said Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committee leaders tasked him with penetrating and disrupting the Deep State. He wrote a letter asserting immunity from prosecution—something not done since World War II. To test his handlers, Byrne said he conducted his own sting operations. He reengaged with Butina, reported increasingly illegal activities—including claims of drugging her and a fabricated aggravated rape/murder scenario—and offered to "cut this chick's head off. " When Brennan and Comey's chain of command did not object, he said it confirmed the depth of the corruption.
Byrne then connected these events to a broader strategy of overthrowing a country "without firing a shot"—a process he outlined as: demoralization, disorientation, crisis, and normalization. The timeline in 2020 included:
- Demoralization: COVID-19 and disinformation around treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and the efficacy and safety of the vaccines.
- Disorientation: Antifa and BLM unrest.
- Crisis: The "fake" 2020 election.
- Normalization: Cancel culture.
He drew parallels to anthropological studies of genocide, describing stages of symbolization (masks and vaccine cards as modern "yellow stars"), demonization ("the pandemic of the unvaccinated"), and preparation (state laws in places like Oregon, Washington, California, and New York allowing removal of children from parents who rejected COVID policies).
Byrne credited Gen. Flynn with urging him to go public after the Durham report. The two have worked together on The America Project (TAP), focused on three lines of effort: election integrity, border security, and medical autonomy.
The Stuff of Books and Movies
This odyssey—and the urging of Gen. Flynn to go public with his story—led Byrne to write a book about it. That then got turned into a movie.
Byrne's 2024 memoir, Danger Close: Domestic Extremist #1 Comes Clean, chronicles his transformation from Wall Street wunderkind and Overstock founder to a self-described intelligence asset entangled in the "Russian Collusion" narrative and Hillary Clinton investigations. Key highlights include:
Joe Biden's weaponized administration, via the Department of Homeland Security, labeled Byrne "Domestic Extremist Threat #1" in 2022 after surfacing these claims. That led to a three-episode documentary series in 2024 titled The Enemy Within.
What Do We Do Now?
At Restoration of America, our founder and CEO, former Army Captain and West Point graduate Doug Truax, has said never again. Never should the American people have to question whether their votes count. Never should we distrust the system. That led him to start the Voter Reference Foundation (VRF) and VoteRef.com. The executive director of VRF explained the purpose in an interview with Restoration News:
"After the 2020 election, people asked questions that made officials uncomfortable, and instead of addressing those real concerns directly, they put up their walls—figuratively and literally—to try and stop any discussion," VRF Executive Director Joseph Benson told Restoration News. "VRF provides open transparency in a way that has never existed before. We want to provide resources to people so they can understand the system and answer their questions."
We must insist on full transparency and a rededication by our elected officials to real election security. And, yes, it has become crystal clear that, at minimum, we must get the SAVE Act passed into law.
Without a real assessment of the vulnerabilities of our various election systems around the nation, we can never have full assurance that foreign adversaries will stay out of it. We cannot wait any longer for real election security.
MORE COVERAGE FROM RESTORATION NEWS
The Deep State Keeps Going: Jack Smith's Minion is Running for Congress, Faces Possible Misconduct Probe
Foreign Interference: Engineering Obedience: China’s AI Surveillance State Should Scare Freedom-Loving Americans
Consequences for the Deep State: From Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity to Betrayal: An Agent’s View of James Comey’s Indictment
Jan. 6 Still Haunts Us: The Shadows of the January 6 Prosecutions Set a Dangerous Precedent
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