Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she hasn’t yet seen the conclusion from 2017 intelligence community assessment that declared the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election to help get Donald Trump elected as president.
“I do not believe that I’ve seen that conclusion,” Nielsen told reporters after a classified election security briefing early Tuesday. She was asked if she had “any reason” to doubt the assessment that Russian President Vladmir Putin “meddled in the election to help President Trump win.”
The 2017 assessment said Putin and his government “developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments. We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”
The 2017 report also said the CIA and FBI have “high confidence” in the judgment, and the NSA has “moderate confidence.”
“The specific intent was to help President Trump win? I’m not aware of that, but I do generally have no reason to doubt any intelligence assessment,” Nielsen said when pressed.
Later, Nielsen said she believed Russia was out to create total confusion in the election.
“I want to be very clear what we have seen the Russians do is attempt to manipulate public confidence on both sides. We’ve seen them encourage people to go to a protest on one side. We’ve seen them simultaneously encourage to people to go the same protest on the other side,” Nielsen explained. “I think what they are trying to do is to disrupt our belief and our own understanding of what’s happening. It’s an integrity issue of who is saying what and why and how that may or may not affect American behavior.
Nielsen added that she does “believe” that Russia “did and will try to continue to manipulate on a whole variety of issues.”
Her comments are different from lawmakers who have studied the report and say they agree that Russia was looking to help Trump specifically.
Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee completed its own review of the 2017 assessment after 14 months, to which Chairman Richard Burr, R-NC, said he had “no reason to dispute the conclusions” of that report.
“After a thorough review, our staff concluded that the ICA conclusions were accurate and on point. The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton,” said Sen. Mark Warner, the committee’s top Democrat.
The House Intelligence Committee, led by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., also investigated 2016 election interference. In a report released in April, the committee said that it agreed with all of the 2017 assessment, “except with respect to Putin’s supposed preference for candidate Trump.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray and then-CIA Director and now- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have all testified before Congress that they agree with the conclusions of the 2017 assessment.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling, also cited the assessment’s conclusions by saying the operations of the indicted Russian nationals and Russian companies “primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.”
DHS Press Secretary Tyler Houlton said in a statement Tuesday that Nielsen “has previously reviewed the Intelligence Community’s assessment and agrees with it – as she stated today and previously.”
“She also very clearly articulated today that the Russian government unequivocally worked to undermine our democracy during the 2016 election. Russian goals included undermining faith in the US democratic process and harming a candidate’s electability and potential presidency. Importantly, they targeted both major political parties. As the Secretary reiterated, their intent was to sow discord in the American electoral process,” said Houlton.
