US govt: Russia still meddling in elections
WASHINGTON: US intelligence officials have said they still see efforts by Russia to interfere in the upcoming 2018 midterm polls in November, adding that they are determined to do all they can to prevent it.
“We acknowledge the threat, it is real, it is continuing, and we’re doing everything we can to have a legitimate election that the American people can have trust in,” Dan Coats, director of national intelligence and the top American spy, said at a news conference at the White House on Thursday.
Coats was accompanied at the briefing by national security adviser John Bolton, FBI director Christopher Wray, secretary of the department of homeland security Kirstjen Nielsen and national security agency director Paul Nakasone.
Together they sought to convey that the administration was aware of the threat from Russia, was determined to stop it and that everything possible was being done to that end. And they acknowledged Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, distancing themselves from President Donald Trump’s ambivalence.
“I think everyone on this stage has acknowledged the fact that the ICA was a correct assessment of what happened in 2016,” Coats said, referring to a joint assessment by the intelligence community — that Russia had interfered in the 2016 elections to damage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help Trump win the presidency.
He said that though there has not been the kind of “robust efforts” seen 2016, “we’re only one keyboard click away from finding out something that we don’t -- haven’t seen up to this particular point in time”.
Asked if Russians are targeting any one party, Coats said: “What we see is the Russians are looking for every opportunity, regardless of party, regardless of whether or not it applies to the election, to continue their pervasive efforts to undermine our fundamental values.”
FBI director Christopher Wray described ongoing Russian actions as “malign influence operations”, such as “information warfare”.
In the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections, Russians are alleged to have hacked the computers of the Democratic National Committee and distributed the stolen data directly and indirectly, to have sought to create and exploit social divisions, and to have spread misinformation through social media platforms using fake accounts and advertisements.
Asked about this assessment, Trump had indicated he gave equal weight age to it and to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denial. He was forced to walk back that assertion by the bipartisan national uproar that followed, and said he believed his intelligence agencies.
But he has continued to assail special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of the meddling and possible collusion as a “hoax” and a “with-hunt”.