Trump publicly doubting that Russia meddled in election
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the assessment of 17 US intelligence agencies that blame Russia for election meddling, questioning Thursday why the Obama administration did not try to stop it.
“By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin.,” the president tweeted. “Why didn’t they stop them?”
All 17 intelligence agencies have agreed Russia was behind the hack of Democratic e-mail systems and tried to influence the 2016 election to benefit Trump. The findings are at the heart of an investigation into contacts that members of Trump’s campaign team may have had with Russian officials during the campaign and the transition.
Trump frequently lashes out at the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt” spearheaded by Democrats.
He tweeted Thursday that the Democratic National Committee turned down an offer from the Department of Homeland Security “to protect against hacks (long prior to election). It’s all a big Dem HOAX!”
“Why did the DNC REFUSE to turn over its Server to the FBI, and still hasn’t? It’s all a big Dem scam and excuse for losing the election!” he wrote.
A day earlier, former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told the House Intelligence Committee that in the late summer and into the fall, he was very concerned about the meddling in state election systems and that the department encouraged states to seek assistance from DHS. He said he was frustrated DHS learned of the hack into the DNC late in the game and that the committee refused help because it was using a private cybersecurity firm.
“In retrospect, it would be easy for me to say that I should have bought a sleeping bag and camped out in front of the DNC in late summer,” Johnson said.
Johnson also addressed the Obama administration’s political sensitivity when it came to warning of the Russian meddling, and alluded to problems created at the time by Trump’s own statements.
“One of the candidates, as you’ll recall, was predicting that the election was going to be rigged in some way. And so we were concerned that, by making the statement, we might in and of itself be challenging the integrity ... of the election process itself,” Johnson said.
Last month, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the agency’s Russia probe. The president has come under harsh criticism by some who claim he threatened to undermine the investigation by firing Comey.