With two months to go until November’s presidential contest, the nation’s top law enforcement officer argued that based on the intelligence he has seen, it is China, not Russia, that is the most aggressive country in the election meddling arena.
Attorney General William Barr appeared on CNN’s Situation Room on Wednesday, and anchor Wolf Blitzer brought up the U.S. intelligence community assessment which has concluded that Russia is attempting to denigrate former Vice President Joe Biden while China wants President Trump to lose reelection and Iran is working to undermine his presidency.
Blitzer asked Barr which foe is “the most assertive, the most aggressive in this area.” Barr responded, “I believe it’s China,” and, when pressed, said that China is even more aggressive than Russia and that he has “seen the intelligence” and “that’s what I’ve concluded.” When Blitzer asked what China was trying to do or who they were trying to help win, Barr declined to elaborate. Blitzer started to bring up the intelligence community assessment again, and Barr said that China was the most aggressive at “trying to influence the United States” — a broader category than just election interference.
The attorney general didn’t explain the China threat further, and the Washington Examiner reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
Barr’s comments match those by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who has overseen all of the nation’s spy agencies since May. He recently said that “China poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation — economically, militarily and technologically” — and “that includes threats of election influence and interference.”
This was after Bill Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, released an intelligence assessment in early August warning that Russia is “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate” Biden, including that “pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine” Biden’s candidacy. The same statement also said China “prefers” that Trump not win reelection and is “expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020.” The counterintelligence official also said Iran “seeks to undermine” Trump’s presidency.
During their interview, Blitzer also asked Barr if he accepts that “Russia is once again interfering in the U.S. presidential election.” Barr replied, “I accept that there is some preliminary activity that suggests that they might try again.” The CNN anchor pushed the attorney general on what that means, and the attorney general explained: “It wouldn’t surprise me if Russia tries something again of the same general genre of before. Influence basically is two kinds of things. It’s hack and dump — you get into someone’s mail system and then try to disclose embarrassing documents. It wouldn’t surprise me if they try something like that or any other country tries it. The other way is social media — and putting things out on social media.”
Robert Mueller’s special counsel report, released in April 2019, said Russians interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” but “did not establish” criminal collusion between any Russians and anyone in Trump’s orbit.
U.S. intelligence officials have said that the U.S. is much better prepared to defend against election meddling in 2020 than they were in 2016, and the Homeland Security Department said it hasn’t seen the sort of ramp-up in Russian cyber activity that it saw four years ago.
The CNN anchor also brought up the Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan report, released in August, which detailed the counterintelligence threat posed by Russia’s influence operations during the prior presidential race, and Blitzer pointed specifically to the report’s conclusions Russia did meddle four years ago and that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort maintained close ties to Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the senators assessed to be a Russian intelligence officer, during the 2016 presidential race. Blitzer asked if Barr accepted those conclusions, and Barr said, “I accept that Russia made some efforts to influence the election.”
Blitzer then asked if Barr agreed with the Senate’s conclusion that the Russians had interfered with the goal of helping Trump, and the attorney general replied that “based on the intelligence I’ve seen, I don’t dispute an assessment — an assessment — that they attempted to interfere.”
The 2017 intelligence community assessment, which is being scrutinized by U.S. Attorney John Durham, concluded with “high confidence” that Russia worked to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate former Secretary of State Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency” and “developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.” The National Security Agency diverged on one aspect, expressing only “moderate confidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin actively tried to help Trump’s election chances and harm those of Hillary Clinton.
