The White House reportedly quashed part of an intelligence report that said Russia is helping the Trump campaign
Aaron Holmes / businessinsider.com
Last year, President Donald Trump’s administration tried to pressure intelligence agencies to delete part of a classified report that found that Russia was trying to help him win the 2020 election, an investigation by The New York Times Magazine found.
- The Trump administration last year pressured the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to delete part of a report concluding that Russia was aiming to help Donald Trump win reelection in 2020, an investigation by The New York Times Magazine found.
- When Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, refused to delete that conclusion from the report, Trump forced him to retire early, the Times report said.
- Previous reports from the FBI, the CIA, and the National Security Agency concluded that Russia attempted to help Trump win in 2016 — and President Vladimir Putin said publicly that he wanted Trump to win — but Trump has denied those reports’ accuracy.
The report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, was compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in July 2019 and made several “key judgments” about matters of national security. “Key Judgement 2” concluded that Russia aimed to interfere in the 2020 election to help Trump, unnamed national security sources told the Times reporter Robert Draper.
Trump was reportedly unhappy with that finding. He has repeatedly denied the assertion that Russia tried to help his campaign in 2016, despite reports from the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Justice Department, and the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee that supported that conclusion. Russian President Vladimir Putin has similarly denied that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, though he has also said he wanted Trump to win.