Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said that she concurs with a January 2017 report from members of the U.S. intelligence community that found Russian agents were responsible for interfering in the election.
In an interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado Thursday, Nielsen said she agrees with the report “full stop.” She did not explicitly say, however, that Russia interfered to help President Trump, as the intelligence community’s assessment surmised.
Nielsen’s response to Scuitto was the most assertive one she gave after repeatedly being asked about the topic throughout the day. Earlier, in a separate interview, Nielsen claimed that she had not seen anything to suggest that Russian interference in the 2016 election sought to benefit Trump.
“I haven’t seen any evidence that the attempts to interfere in our election infrastructure was to favor a particular political party,” Nielsen told NBC News’ Peter Alexander. “I think the overall purpose was to sow discord.”
The U.S. intelligence community report found that the Russian interference operation gave preference to Trump over Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.
“We further assess [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump … We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election changes when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him,” the report found.
When pressed about the findings of the U.S. intelligence report, Nielsen claimed the interference was designed to “attack certain political parties.”
“It was in an effort to attack certain political parties that we know about — right — more than others,” Nielsen said in response. “I think we’ll continue to look and see what that means and be prepared for the next time.”
Nielsen’s comments come after Trump told reporters Monday during a joint press conference in Helsinki alongside Putin that he had no reason not to believe the Russian leader’s assurances to him that the Kremlin was not to blame for interference in the election.
Trump later admitted that he misspoke when he said he didn’t “see any reason why” Russia would have meddled in the 2016 election, and said he believes the U.S. intelligence community assessment that found Russian agents did interfere in the electoral process. Trump also said during a CBS News interview that he holds Putin “responsible” for interference in the U.S. electoral process.
