PERSPECTIVE: THE RUSSIA CONNECTIONTrump Appointee Twice Delayed Report on Russian Election Interference, Federal Watchdog Says

A senior Trump political appointee delayed a report on Russian election interference in the 2020 election in a way which created the perception that intelligence was politicized, according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security watchdog.

Ken Dilanian writes for NBC News that

The DHS inspector general report also found that employees of DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis made changes to the analysis of foreign election interference “that appear to be based in part on political considerations, potentially impacting I&A’s compliance with Intelligence Community policy.”

The report also found that the appointee, acting Secretary Chad Wolf, who is not named, “participated in the review process multiple times despite lacking any formal role in reviewing the product, resulting in the delay of its dissemination on at least one occasion.”

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At issue was an intelligence analysis stating that “Russian malign influence actors” were spreading unsubstantiated allegations about the health of then-candidate Joe Biden to reduce voters’ confidence in him. The product said Russia was using both overt and covert channels and linked the efforts to similar operations during the 2016 presidential election.

On Wolf’s orders, the release of the paper was twice delayed, the inspector general’s report says. Moreover, in what appears to be an attempt to dilute the significance of information about the Russian election interference on behalf of the Trump campaign, other DHS officials added a so-called “tone box” describing efforts by Chinese and Iranian influence actors to promote unsubstantiated narratives questioning the mental health of then-President Donald Trump. But with the exception of the late-added tone box itself, China and Iran are not mentioned in the report.

“The tone box is the only part of the product where Iran and China, as well as President Trump, are discussed,” the inspector general’s report says. 

The report was sparked by a whistleblower complaint, covered at the time by NBC News. The written complaint by Brian Murphy, who was a top DHS intelligence analyst, accused top DHS officials of blocking analysis of Russian election interference, watering down intelligence reports about corruption and violence fueling a refugee flow from Central America, and “modify[ing] assessments to ensure they matched up with the public comments by President Trump on the subject of ANTIFA and ‘anarchist’ groups.”