Trump advisor asserts seeing no intel of Russia meddling

By : AFP

Date: 23 February 2020 6:24pm WAT

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump make their way to board Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on February 23, 2020. - Trump is heading to India for his first visit there. United by mistrust of China, Trump's visit will see deals in defence and other areas, including potentially the supply of six nuclear reactors, the fruit of a landmark atomic accord in 2008.The visit will be big on optics, with Modi and Trump appearing at a rally at the world's largest cricket stadium and the US president and First Lady Melania watching the sunset at the Taj Mahal. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP)

President Donald Trump’s national security advisor said Sunday he had seen no intelligence that Russia was again meddling in the US elections in favor of his boss.

The assertions by National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien followed this week’s ouster of the acting director of national intelligence after an aide had warned Congress of the meddling.

“I haven’t seen any intelligence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump re-elected,” O’Brien said on ABC’s “This Week,” dismissing the reports as a “non-story.”

Shelby Pierson, an aide to acting intelligence chief Joseph Maguire, reportedly told members of the House Intelligence Committee in a classified briefing February 13 that Russia was again meddling in the US elections and had developed a preference for Trump.

O’Brien said he had not spoken with Pierson but said he had been briefed by Maguire and CIA chief Gina Haspel “and I have not heard that analysis or seen any intel along those lines.”

“Who knows what happened at the House and the intelligence committee, but I haven’t seen any evidence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump re-elected, and our message to the Russians is stayed out of the US elections,” O’Brien said.

Trump, after learning of the House briefing, is reported to have dressed down Maguire in a tense Oval Office meeting. On Wednesday, he replaced him with Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist who is an ambassador to Germany.

Maguire had been considered the favorite to be nominated to the post on a permanent basis.

But O’Brien insisted that Maguire was replaced because his term as acting director of national intelligence was up on March 11.

“The president was not angry with Joe Maguire,” O’Brien said. “He thinks very highly of Admiral Maguire, and would elect him to stay in government in a different role, but as you know, his time as the acting DNI was up in a week or two.”

On Twitter, Trump has dismissed the reports of the intelligence warning as a “rumor” and a “hoax,” as he did after the US intelligence community concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help him win.

Separately, US officials were reported to have briefed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic nomination, that Russia was also interfering to help his campaign.

“My message to Putin is clear: stay out of American elections, and as president, I will make sure that you do,” Sanders said in a statement.