President Donald J. Trump displays his signature after signing
an executive order ensuring that the American people have priority
access to COVID-19 vaccines developed in the U.S. or procured by
the U.S. government, at the Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit
Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020, in the South Court Auditorium at the
Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. (Official
White House photo by Shealah Craighead)
After telling a CBS News reporter that Beijing interfered in the
2020 U.S. election, Director of National Intelligence John
Ratcliffe has delayed issuing a required intelligence community
assessment report because of clashes among senior officials over
the communist regime’s role.
“Ratcliffe has been really clear about his view that China is
our top national security threat,” a senior intelligence official
told the Washington Examiner. “But ultimately, he’s trying to
ensure politics don’t play a role in what makes it into this
report.”
The official said that if there are “conflicting views among
senior analysts about Chinese election influence, he wants both
views to get a fair shake in the report.”
DNI John Ratcliffe
The report on foreign election interference, due 45 days after
the election, is mandated by a 2018 executive order by President
Trump. Anticipation of the report increased with the recent
revelations of Chinese infiltration in Congress and China’s
reported investment in the Dominion voting machines, used by 28
states, that are the target of vote-fraud accusations in numerous
lawsuits.
However, an intelligence source told the Examiner the report
will not focus on claims that voting machines flipped millions of
votes or of mail-in ballot fraud.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said last
month “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost
votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
However, President Trump fired the agency’s director,
Christopher Krebs, charging his defense of the security of the
election was “highly inaccurate.”
On Wednesday, CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge said
Ratcliffe told her “there was foreign election interference by
China, #Iran and Russia in November of this year, and he is
anticipating a public report on those findings in January.”
#BREAKING
CBS News Senior Correspondent @CBS_Herridge reports that
@DNI_Ratcliffe has
“told CBS News that there was foreign election interference by
China,
#Iran, and Russia in November of this year [2020].”More to come.pic.twitter.com/bxoWeys5FZ
— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) December
16, 2020
Four years ago, the intel community concluded Russia meddled in
the 2016 election, bolstering the now debunked claims of Trump
campaign collusion with Russia.
A DNI spokeswoman, Amanda Schoch, said Wednesday that career
intelligence officials notified Ratcliffe that the Intelligence
Community would not meet the Dec. 18 deadline. She said the IC “has
received relevant reporting since the election and a number of
agencies have not finished coordinating on the product.”
The intelligence source who spoke to the Examiner said some
analysts say China took numerous steps to influence the election,
while others insist Beijing’s intent wasn’t to meddle or that it
didn’t carry out its plans.
The source said Ratcliffe wants all viewpoints reflected and
there was a considerable amount of intelligence still coming
in.
Richard Grenell speaks at the Republican National Convention on
Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020 (RNC video screenshot)
Former DNI Ric Grenell tweeted Wednesday that Ratcliffe “is
standing up for career analysts who want their views to be
accurately reflected.”
“In other words, fighting to keep intelligence from being
politicized,” he wrote.
Ratcliffe told the Examiner earlier this month that there are
analysts from the Cold War era who are accustomed to Russia being
the biggest threat, or terrorism, “but the greatest threat that we
face and a greater amount of our focus needs to be on China.”
The Intelligence Community released an initial assessment on
foreign interference in August that warned “many foreign actors
have a preference for who wins the election” though “covert
influence efforts are rarer.”
William Evanina, the director of the National
Counterintelligence and Security Center, said the assessment
concluded China “prefers that President Trump, whom Beijing sees as
unpredictable, does not win reelection.”
“China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of
November 2020 to shape the policy environment in the United States,
pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s
interests, and deflect and counter criticism of China,” Evanina
said.
Beijing, he said, has become “increasingly critical of the
current administration’s COVID-19 response, closure of China’s
Houston Consulate, and actions on other issues.”
Attorney General William Barr told CNN in September he believed
China was the No. 1 threat regarding election interference.
Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a
leading purveyor of the Trump-Russia claims over the past four
years, called Barr’s assessment “flat-out false.”
In late October, Ratcliffe held a press conference with FBI
Director Christopher Wray warning Russia and Iran gained access to
U.S. voter registration information
The DNI said Iran, in an effort to damage Trump, was sending
spoofed emails pretending to be members of the Proud Boys.
The post Ratcliffe delays election
report amid clash over China’s role appeared first on WND.
