trump tries to force ukraine to meddle in 2020 electuon

“This is not a big surprise, but it illustrates the tremendous challenge that the intelligence community has where they’re teeing up facts that our President doesn’t want to hear, and with a result that the messenger got shot in the form of Joe Maguire being asked to leave,” Clapper said. James Clapper, who served as director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” Thursday evening that it is “quite predictable” Russia would again try to interfere in the election. So it may have been mischaracterized by Shelby,” the official said. But not that they prefer him over (Bernie) Sanders or (Pete) Buttigieg or anyone else.

It’s more that they understand the President is someone they can work with, he’s a dealmaker. “A more reasonable interpretation of the intelligence is not that they have a preference, it’s a step short of that.

The prospect of interference in 2020 will further test US defenses against foreign meddling, which Trump has repeatedly downplayed as he has dismissed any suggestion that Kremlin influence played a role in his election.Ī national security official in the Trump administration told CNN that Pierson may have mischaracterized the intelligence that Russia has developed a preference for Trump. Russia’s interference in the 2016 election – which the US intelligence community believes was aimed at boosting Trump’s candidacy and hurting his opponent, Hillary Clinton – led to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Trump became irate in a meeting with outgoing acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire last week for allowing the information about Russia’s meddling efforts to be included in the briefing, a White House official said. The briefers said Russia does favor Trump, but that helping Trump wasn’t the only thing they were trying to do as it was also designed to raise questions about the integrity of the elections process, the source added. Last week’s briefing, led by election security official Shelby Pierson and first reported by The New York Times, addressed the overall picture of Russia’s efforts, including hacking, weaponizing social media and attacks on election infrastructure, one of the sources said. The intelligence community’s top election security official delivered a briefing to lawmakers last week warning them that the intelligence community believes Russia is already taking steps to interfere in the 2020 election with the goal of helping President Donald Trump win, three sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Trump tries to force ukraine to meddle in 2020 electuon