White House stifled reports on Russia's actions: Official
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WASHINGTON • A senior US intelligence official said the White House ordered him to stop reporting on Russian election interference and highlight Chinese and Iran meddling instead, according to a whistle-blower complaint.
Offering explosive evidence to support Democratic allegations that United States President Donald Trump has manipulated intelligence to support his re-election effort, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) analyst Brian Murphy said he was told by acting DHS chief Chad Wolf that assessments on the Russian threat made Mr Trump "look bad".
Mr Wolf told him the order to stifle his analyses "specifically originated from White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien", a top Trump aide, Mr Murphy alleged.
Mr Murphy, a senior official in DHS' Office of Intelligence and Analysis, said he refused to censor his reporting on Russians and on the domestic white supremacist threat, "as doing so would put the country in substantial and specific danger".
In retaliation, he was demoted last month, he said.
The complaint, released by the Democrat-led House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, came after months of reports that the White House was downplaying the Russian election threat, despite what US intelligence chiefs have said was massive interference in the 2016 campaign that brought Mr Trump to power.
In an official statement on election interference on Aug 7, the Directorate of National Intelligence focused on what it said was active interference by China and Iran.
DHS rejected the allegations of intelligence manipulation and retaliation against Mr Murphy.
"We flatly deny that there is any truth to the merits of Mr Murphy's claim," said department spokesman Alexei Woltornist.
Meanwhile, Microsoft recently alerted one of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's main election campaign advisory firms that it had been targeted by suspected Russian state-backed hackers, according to three sources.
The hacking attempts targeted staff at Washington-based SKDKnickerbocker, a campaign strategy and communications firm working with Mr Biden and other prominent Democrats, over the past two months, the sources said. One said the hackers failed to gain access to the firm's networks.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
