Minority view in intelligence assessment argues China meddled in 2020 to hurt Trump

Published March 18, 2021 8:16pm ET



There is disagreement within the intelligence community over whether China sought to influence 2020’s presidential election as a newly released Intelligence Community Assessment concluded that it didn’t, while a minority view by the national intelligence officer for cyber argued that it did.

The report, which concluded that Russia sought to hurt then-candidate Joe Biden while Iran worked to harm President Donald Trump, was put together by the National Intelligence Council under the auspices of the national intelligence officer for cyber — which disagreed with the majority opinion on China and was backed by former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe — and was drafted along with the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and the National Security Agency. The report released by Biden spy chief Avril Haines is a declassified version of the classified report provided to Trump and congressional leaders on Jan. 7.

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