Conspiracy theorists had fixated on one of those men, Arturo D’Elia, an Italian IT specialist previously charged over cyber intrusions involving a defense contractor. Italian authorities denied any connection between D’Elia and the election, and no evidence ever emerged tying him to altered vote totals. Inside the White House, the conspiracy was taken seriously enough to generate emails, phone calls, and repeated requests for further review. The letter laid out the Italygate conspiracy, claiming the Italian defense company Leonardo SpA had “changed the US election result from President Trump to Joe Biden” by “using advanced military encryption capabilities.”It continued to circulate online under the hashtag #ItalyGate. The sharing of these conspiracy theories comes the same day federal agents executed a search warrant Wednesday at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operations Center outside Atlanta as part of an investigation related to the 2020 election.