Intelligence officials warned members of the House Intelligence Committee last week the Russians were attempting to interfere in the 2020 presidential contest with the goal of helping Trump win reelection, according to reports.
The briefing was conducted by Shelby Pierson, the Intelligence Community election threats executive under outgoing acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire. During the meeting, Pierson warned that “Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump reelected,” according to five people familiar with the matter cited by the New York Times.
Russian interference on behalf of Trump in 2020 has not been publicly confirmed by the U.S. Intelligence Community.
CNN’s Jake Tapper cited a national security official “I know and trust” who rejected the framing of the story along with “others with firsthand knowledge.”
“What’s been articulated in the news is that the intelligence community has concluded that the Russians are trying to help Trump again,” the official said. “But the intelligence doesn’t say that.”
Tapper’s source said “the problem is Shelby said they developed a preference for Trump” and “a more reasonable interpretation of the intelligence is not that they have a preference, it’s a step short of that. It’s more that they understand the president is someone they can work with, he’s a dealmaker. But not that they prefer him over Sanders or Buttigieg or anyone else. So it may have been mischaracterized by Shelby.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller concluded last year the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic” fashion, but he did not establish any criminal conspiracy between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham are leading an internal inquiry into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.
The day after last Thursday’s briefing, the report claimed Trump “berated” Maguire for letting it happen, also alleging Trump “cited the presence in the briefing” of Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff “as a particular irritant.”
In a separate piece on Thursday, the Washington Post cited sources who claimed Trump “erroneously believed” Pierson had given intelligence “exclusively” to Schiff and that Trump thought “it would be helpful to Democrats if released publicly.” That report cited an anonymous source who claimed “there was a dressing down” of Maguire by Trump and “that was the catalyst” that led Trump to replace him with Trump ally and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Wednesday.
The New York Times cited two administration officials who cast doubt on the notion that Trump was irritated at Maguire because of the briefing, saying that “the timing was coincidental,” that “Mr. Grenell had been in discussions with the administration about taking on new roles,” and that “Mr. Trump had never felt a personal kinship with Mr. Maguire.”
The national security official cited by Tapper also said “the president was upset that he had to hear about an intelligence conclusion from a member of the House Republicans rather than from the intelligence community, so he was out of joint with Maguire on that process.”
Former Rep. Trey Gowdy said the buzz on Capitol Hill is that Trump was not angry with Maguire before announcing his exit. “My sources on the Hill tell me he was not upset with Maguire, that this was a move that was coming anyway,” Gowdy said on Fox News.
Trump tweeted on Wednesday that he “would like to thank Joe Maguire for the wonderful job he has done” and said, “We look forward to working with him closely, perhaps in another capacity within the Administration!”
Grenell tweeted early Thursday to say he would only be the “Acting” head of the Intelligence Community and that “the President will announce the Nominee (not me) sometime soon.”
The ambassador, a longtime Russia hawk, has been a forceful and effective advocate for Trump’s foreign policy agenda. Grenell has taken on an outsize role in pressuring NATO to increase spending, criticizing Germany for getting too cozy with Russian energy endeavors, and pushing for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.
“Members on both sides participated, including ranking member Nunes, and heard the exact same briefing from experts across the Intelligence Community,” a committee official cited by the Washington Post said about last week’s briefing. “No special or separate briefing was provided to one side or to any single member, including the chairman.”
The New York Times also said, “Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that Mr. Trump has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security” during the briefing. The national security official who talked with Tapper said “both Democrats and Republicans were challenging this at the briefing.”
Beyond the indictments against members of Russian military intelligence handed down by Mueller, the Trump administration has imposed a number of significant sanctions against Russia and has built up the U.S. military’s presence in Eastern Europe. Its push for increased spending by NATO member countries has resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in increased military expenditures to confront an increasingly combative Russia.
Jack Langer, the communications director for Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member on the committee, told the Washington Examiner he could not divulge details about classified briefings.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told the Washington Examiner: “Thank you for your query; we have nothing for you at this time.”
Neither the White House nor Schiff’s office immediately responded to a request for comment.
Trump has a history of speaking out against members of the intelligence and law enforcement communities, including former FBI Director James Comey. He called Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election a “witch hunt.”
Earlier this month, when Rep. Eric Swalwell pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray about whether the Russians were actively helping any specific campaign, Wray deflected.
“I’d have to think about whether or not I can say anything in an open setting like that,” Wray told the House Judiciary Committee. “But I would say, in general, that the efforts to sow discord on both sides of an issue and to generate controversy and to generate distrust in our democratic institutions on our election process, that is very much ongoing.”
Pierson told WTOP earlier this month that “election security remains a top priority for the U.S. federal government as a whole” and said, “We have significantly evolved since 2016, and I don’t imagine we’ll decelerate anytime soon.”
She acknowledged last month the extent of Russian interference in 2016 but emphasized that other countries pose challenges.
“We do not assess that any other country influenced the United States election in 2016 on the scale of what the Russians did,” Pierson said on CBS News’s Intelligence Matters podcast, adding that, when it comes to 2020, “We see a more complicated threat landscape. This is not just a Russia-only problem.”
