TRUMP FURIOUS AT CLAIMS OF RUSSIA MEDDLING

WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed a United States intelligence assessment that Russia is meddling in the 2020 election to help his re-election as a Democrat “hoax,” amid a row over a briefing with Congress last week.

“Another misinformation campaign is being launched by Democrats in Congress, saying that Russia prefers me to any of the Do-nothing Democrat candidates who still have been unable to, after two weeks, count their votes in Iowa,” the president tweeted, adding: “Hoax number 7!”

It comes after Shelby Pierson, America’s top election security official, warned the House Intelligence Committee that the Kremlin was interfering in the 2020 presidential campaign to aid Trump’s re-election in a classified briefing on Feb. 13.

More than two dozen Democrats and Republicans sit on the committee, and the details of the briefing are thought to have been related to Trump.

The U.S. president was furious with Joseph Maguire, his acting director of national intelligence (DNI), and his aides for speaking to Congress and accused them of being “disloyal.”

The president announced on Wednesday that he was replacing Maguire with Richard Grenell, who is the U.S. ambassador to Germany and a vocal Trump loyalist.

Some members of the intelligence community have expressed disquiet over the announcement, as the DNI oversees intelligence agencies and is usually filled by someone with intelligence-gathering or military experience.