The president & the intelligence communityIntel director Coats: Russia interfered in 2016 election

In Monday’s joint press conference in Helsinki, President Donald Trump publicly sided with President Vladimir Putin’s “powerful denials” of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, and questioned the unanimous verdict of the U.S. intelligence community – a verdict based on national technical means, digital forensics, and human sources – that there is a mountain of incontrovertible evidence that Putin ordered Russia’s intelligence services, especially the GRU, to engage in a broad and sustained hacking and disinformation campaign to ensure Trump’s victory in November 2016

“My people came to me — Dan Coats came to me, some others — they said they think it’s Russia,” Trump said. “I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be,” Trump said.

Dan Coats, the former Republican senator from Indiana and now the director of national intelligence (DNI), wasted little time coming to the defense of the intelligence community’ assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

Coats’s statement was issued two hours after Trump and Putin ended their joint press conference.

In the statement, Coats said the U.S. intelligence community has “been clear” about its findings.

“The role of the Intelligence Community is to provide the best information and fact-based assessments possible for the president and policymakers,” said Coats, who took over as U.S. director of national intelligence in March 2017. “We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security.”