Politicizing intelligenceDHS Intelligence Official Says He Was Pressured to Stop Providing Assessments of Russia’s Threat to U.S. Election

Published 10 September 2020

Brian Murphy, the former head of DHS’s intelligence and analysis unit, said in a whistle-blower complaint  made public on Wednesday that he was pressured by acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf to stop providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference in the upcoming U.S. election. In his complaint, Murphy also says that acting DHS secretary Kenneth Cuccinelli directed agency analysts to downplay threats from violent white supremacy to make the threat “appear less severe,” and include information on violent “left-wing” groups and antifa. Murphy says that Wolf and Cuccinelli — both Trump appointees not yet confirmed by the Senate — appeared to want to shape DHS’s public announcements so they accord with the president’s language and political interests, even if modifying the department’s public announcements in this way contradicted the department’s own intelligence analysis.

Brian Murphy, the former head of DHS’s intelligence and analysis unit, said in a whistle-blower complaint  made public on Wednesday that he was pressured by acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf to stop providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference in the upcoming U.S. election.

Murphy said that Wolf told him in May 2020 to focus instead on the threat from China and Iran.

When Murphy refused, he was pushed out of the decision making process, and a modified report was leaked to the news media equating Russia’s actions with those of China and Iran “in a manner that is misleading and inconsistent with the actual intelligence data,” the complaint said.

A modified report was later leaked to the news media equating Russia’s actions with those of China and Iran “in a manner that is misleading and inconsistent with the actual intelligence data,” the complaint said.

Murphy’s lawyers filed the complaint with his old employer the DHS, sending copies to various individuals and institutions in government and the media.

In his complaint, Murphy said that Wolf had received the instructions from White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.

Wolf later told him not to disseminate a report on a Russian disinformation campaign to denigrate Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s mental health. The Russian disinformation campaign dovetails with the Trump reelection campaigns’ attacks on Biden.

According to the complaint, Wolf told Murphy intelligence on Russian disinformation should be “held” because it “made the president look bad.”

Murphy objected, arguing that it was improper to withhold vetted intelligence for reasons of political embarrassment. Murphy said that after he refused to comply, he was demoted.

The whistleblower complaint calls for an investigation into what it termed “retaliatory actions” taken against Murphy for compiling his intelligence reports.

The complaint outlined several other occasions when Murphy was pressured to amend details within intelligence reports which did not match with policy objectives of President Donald Trump.

In December 2019, Murphy submitted intelligence reports on U.S. asylum standards which outlined corruption, violence, and economic malaise Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador

According to Murphy’s account, acting DHS Secretary Kenneth Cuccinelli said he “wanted changes to the information” and complained that “deep state intelligence analysts” were compiling intelligence to undermine Trump’s asylum policy objectives.

The complaint also said Murphy was pressured in 2018 to provide intelligence assessments to support the Trump administration’s claims that migrants with terrorist ties were crossing the southwestern border of the United States. Murphy claimed to have said that he would not change the intelligence to overestimate the threat. 

Nevertheless, former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified before the U.S. Congress in December 2018 that 3,755 documented terrorists had crossed the border.

According to Murphy’s account, the number should have been three.

Murphy said in the complaint that Nielsen’s testimony “constituted a knowing and deliberate submission of false material information.”

In his complaint, Murphy also says that Cuccinelli directed agency analysts to downplay threats from violent white supremacy to make the threat “appear less severe,” and include information on violent “left-wing” groups and antifa.

A year ago, Kevin McAleenan, then the acting secretary of Homeland Security, promised the department would release an annual threat assessment, along with a blueprint of how to combat white nationalism and domestic terrorism. DHS intelligence and analysis unit prepared the 2020 threat assessment report, but Cuccinelli was unsatisfied with it.

“Mr. Cuccinelli stated that Mr. Murphy needed to specifically modify the section on white supremacy in a manner that made the threat appear less severe, as well as include information on the prominence of violent ‘left-wing’ groups,” according to the complaint.

Murphy said in the complaint that the final version of the assessment would be altered to emphasize “anarchist” groups and antifa, a loose collection of left-wing anti-fascist activists that former Homeland Security analysts had determined to be not as deadly as more organized white nationalists.

During meetings in May and July, Cuccinelli and Wolf directed Murphy to change other intelligence briefings that were shared with federal and state law enforcement agencies to ensure that they matched Trump’s descriptions of the danger posed by antifa.

Murphy’s says that Wolf and Cuccinelli — both Trump appointees not yet confirmed by the Senate — appeared to want to shape DHS’s public announcements so they accord with the president’s language and political interests, even if modifying the department’s public announcements in this way contradicted the department’s own intelligence analysis.

The New York Times notes that Trump’s hostility toward the U.S. intelligence agencies  is not new, but that Murphy’s complaint “provided some of the most graphic claims yet that career, nonpartisan analysts had been muzzled or shoved aside to downplay the threat posed specifically by Russia as it sought to sow discord and bolster Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign.”