Leaks about last week’s secretive briefing given to the House Intelligence Committee about Russia’s intentions in 2020 sparked contradictions and denials in the nation’s capital.
A national security official cited by CNN’s Jake Tapper disputed the framing of stories from the New York Times and other outlets on Thursday that spoke of an intelligence assessment finding Russia is attempting to interfere in 2020’s election to benefit President Trump.
The source, who Tapper said “I know and trust” and was in agreement with “others with firsthand knowledge,” also added context to disputed claims from sources cited by the Washington Post that Trump is removing former Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire because the spy chief’s team briefed members of Congress about the assessment.
The classified briefing happened last Thursday and was conducted by Shelby Pierson, the Intelligence Community election threats executive under 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 cited by the New York Times.
“What’s been articulated in the news is that the intelligence community has concluded that the Russians are trying to help Trump again. But the intelligence doesn’t say that,” Tapper’s source said. “The problem is Shelby said they developed a preference for Trump. A more reasonable interpretation of the intelligence is not that they have a preference, it’s a step short of that.”
The national security official added 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” his Democratic opponents.
“So it may have been mischaracterized by Shelby,” Tapper’s source said.
Trump disputed it too.
“Another misinformation campaign is being launched by Democrats in Congress saying that Russia prefers me to any of the Do Nothing Democrat candidates,” Trump tweeted Friday.
Special counsel Robert Mueller concluded the Russian government interfered in 2016’s election in a “sweeping and systematic” fashion to help Trump, but did not establish any criminal conspiracy between the Kremlin and Trump’s campaign.
Russian interference on behalf of Trump in 2020 has never been claimed publicly by the U.S. intelligence community.
The New York Times said, “Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that Mr. Trump has been tough on Russia” during the briefing. The national security official who talked with Tapper said that “both Democrats and Republicans were challenging” the assessment “at the briefing.”
CBS News’s Catherine Herridge tweeted her source “said briefers had none to offer” when pressed for details about whether there was signals intelligence to back up claims about Russia’s 2020 preference.
The day after the briefing, the New York Times reported Trump “berated” Maguire for letting it happen and said Trump “cited the presence in the briefing” of Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff “as a particular irritant.” The Washington Post cited a source who claimed the briefing “was the catalyst” that led Trump to replace him with U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Wednesday.
The New York Times cited two administration officials who said that “the timing was coincidental.”
The official cited by Tapper 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.”
[Opinion: Why the Trump-Russia intelligence report doesn’t quite add up]
