Two senior Trump administration officials suspect Democrats are the hidden hand behind a Department of Homeland Security official’s claim that agency leaders manipulated internal intelligence reports to match up with false statements President Trump made about antifa and anarchists.

Brian Murphy, the acting undersecretary who was recently booted from the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis, is attempting to save face amid a congressional investigation, both officials told the Washington Examiner Wednesday afternoon. They separately said that they were concerned that the sudden cooperation between Murphy and congressional Democrats may have more to do with Democrats trying to take down the Trump administration two months out from the election than rectifying a smaller matter of how Murphy carried out his job following other complaints.