» Trump says he was not told that Russia was helping Sanders,
— President Donald Trump said Sunday that he has never been briefed about Russian efforts to help Bernie Sanders win the Democratic presidential nomination and he accused the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee of leaking election security information from a classified briefing.
Sanders acknowledged on Friday that he was briefed last month by U.S. officials about Russian efforts to boost his chances to be the nominee against Trump in November.
“I read where Russia is helping Bernie Sanders,” Trump told reporters before leaving on a trip to India. “Nobody said it to me. Nobody said it to me at all. Nobody briefed me about that at all . ... They leaked it.”
He accused Rep. Adam
Schiff of California, the committee chairman who played a lead role in Trump’s impeachment, of leaking information from a classified briefing.
“Schiff and his group, they leaked it to the papers and as usual,” Trump said. “They ought to investigate Adam Schiff for leaking that information. He should not be leaking information out of intelligence. They ought to investigate Adam Schiff.”
Schiff claims that Trump’s accusation was false.
“Nice deflecti on, Mr. President. But your false claims fool no one,” Schiff tweeted. “You welcomed Russian help in 2016, tried to coerce Ukraine’s help in 2019, and won’t protect our elections in 2020.”
Schiff also claimed that Trump “fired” Joseph Maguire this past week as acting national intelligence directo for “briefing Congress” about election interference from Russia. “You’ve betrayed Amer- ica. Again,” Schiff tweeted.
A nearly two-year investi- gation led by special coun- sel Robert Mueller alleged there was a sophisticated, Kremlin-led operation to sow division in the U.S. and upend the 2016 election by using cyberattacks and social media as weapons. Intelli- gence officials have warned Russia is doing the same in 2020.
Tr u mp, however, has remained skeptical about the Russian interference.
Asked why Trump recently called Russian interference in the election “another misinformation campaign” that is being “launched by Dem- ocrats in Congress,” Marc Short, chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, defended the president.
Short told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” that Trump does want to stop foreign interference in the elections. Short also said Trump wants to have a briefing at the White House in the next couple weeks so “we can tell the American people how we’re making sure that our voting is safer.”
Co n flicting accounts emerged from the recent closed-door briefing that election security officials gave to the House commit- tee on interference by Russia and other nations in the 2020 campaign.
One intelligence official said that lawmakers were not told that Russia was work- ing to directly aid Trump. But other people familiar with the meeting said they were told the Kremlin was looking to help Trump’s candidacy. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discussed the classified briefing.
It’s unclear whether the committee members were also briefed about Russian efforts to boost Sanders — a move that could be seen as beneficial to Trump’s re-elec- tion bid.
“I think what it could be is, you know, the Democrats are treating Bernie Sanders very unfairly and it sounds to me like a leak from Adam Schiff because they don’t want Bernie Sanders to represent them,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn.
Trump’s national security adviser said Russia probably would favor Sanders.
“They’d probably like him to be president, understandably, because he wants to spend money on social programs and probably would have to take it out of the military,” Robert O’Brien told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
O’Brien claimed he had not seen any intelligence or analyses indicating that Russia was aiding Trump and neither had top leaders in the intelligence agencies.
“The national security adviser gets pretty good access to our intelligence,” O’Brien told ABC’s “This Week.”
“All I know is that the Republic ans on the side of the House hearing were unhappy with the hearing and said that there was no intelligence to back up what was being said,” O’Brien said. “But here’s the deal: I don’t even know if what’s been reported as being said (by the briefers) is true. You know those are leaks coming out of that hearing.”