House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff accused President Trump of aiding in a Russian disinformation effort to secure a victory in November.
In response to former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s concerns that not enough information is being provided to the public and state agencies about potential foreign interference in the upcoming election, the California Democrat claimed Trump is withholding information about election security on purpose.
“When this intelligence is withheld from state and local law enforcement, those responsible for election security, those who are responsible for making sure the technologies work and aren’t hacked into, when that is withheld because it would, what, be embarrassing to the president, that puts our democracy at risk,” Schiff said Thursday on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports. “That puts everyone’s votes at risk, so this is just how destructive it is.”
The intelligence community recently warned that China, Russia, and Iran are seeking to influence the 2020 election. That assessment, released in August by William Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said Russia is “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate” Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The same report said China wants Trump to lose the election and that Iran “seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions and divide the country in advance of the elections.”
Schiff spoke a day after it was revealed that veteran journalist Bob Woodward reported in his new book that former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats held “deep suspicions” that Russian President Vladimir Putin “had something” on Trump.
Schiff, who has long argued there was collusion “in plain sight” between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016, also pointed to the Treasury Department accusing Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russia Ukrainian who has been promoting discredited allegations about Biden, of being a Russian agent and announcing sanctions against him.
Derkach met with Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine last December as Giuliani tried to obtain damaging information on Biden’s relationships in the country. On Thursday, the Trump administration tied Derkach to the Kremlin.
“This is the same person that the president’s lawyer has been meeting with, has been pushing out false narratives with,” Schiff said. “In fact, Treasury acknowledges that these are false narratives about Joe Biden that this Russian agent is pushing out, and the president is amplifying those same false narratives. And here we see, you know, the fish rots from the head. When the president of the United States is willing to push out Kremlin narratives and get people who work for him to withhold intelligence about what Russia is doing to help his campaign, it really puts our elections at risk.”
