The official added that other agencies supporting election security, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, intend to continue briefing Congress.
An ODNI official defended the move Saturday, telling CNN that Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe is “committed to fulfilling our legal obligations and informing Congress in full and in the present.”
“For clarity and to protect sensitive intelligence from unauthorized disclosure, we will do so primarily through written finished intelligence products. We are concerned about unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information following a recent briefing,” the official said.
Yet, the sudden announcement is a revenge for a change that goes against the pledge of transparency and regular briefings by the intelligence community on election threats.
Intelligence officials have previously expressed frustration with information presented in previously leaked classified sessions to suppress congressional committees, but turning it into a written briefing would undoubtedly limit lawmakers’ ability to ask questions of intelligence officers in real time.
“With a written publication or a written report, you avoid back-and-forth questions, some of which can be quite investigative. And I think, DNI would prefer to avoid that and avoid the risk of saying that the former National Intelligence Department Director James Clapper said Saturday that the president is suffering from anger.
“I think this is a terrible thing given the need to inform voters about what foreign nations are doing to interfere in our political process,” added CNN contributor Clpper.
CNN The committee has reached out to officials to comment.
Last month, the intelligence officer for election security, Bill Ivanina, reiterated his commitment to providing “strong intelligence-based briefings on election security” to key officials, including Congress, with political parties and presidential campaigns.
“We assess that if China favors President Trump – whom Beijing sees as unpredictable – he will not be able to win re-election,” he wrote. “China is expanding its influence efforts before November 2020 to shape the policy environment in the United States, forcing politicians to oppose China’s interests, and condemning and criticizing China.”
“Our assessment is that Russia takes a number of steps primarily to discredit former Vice President Biden and what he sees as an anti-Russian” establishment, “” he said when asked about Russia’s role in supporting the Obama administration’s anti-Putin policy on Ukraine. This is consistent with the public criticism of him. “
Ivanina also said that Iran “seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions, President Trump, and divide the country.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said the earlier warnings about Idena’s interference in foreign elections in July were amended, but “three actors of different motives and abilities are counted as equal threats to the democratic election.”
In a joint statement issued at the time, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Republican and Democrat, Sense. Marco Rubio and Mark Warner thanked Ivanana for providing additional information about the threats and encouraged the intelligence community to “continue to provide this information. Available.”
U.S. Officials also said last week that they had foreign countries, including Russia, trying to undermine any part of the mail-in voting process, contradicting Trump, who has repeatedly made false claims. Foreign opponents are targeting the Mail Ballet as part of a “tough” presidency.
In particular, a senior intelligence official allowed the possibility of large-scale fraudulent ballots by foreign actors to interfere in the November election, and again broke with Trump who insisted the mail-in ballot was a significant threat to election security.
“We have no information or intelligence that any state-threatening actor is participating in the activity … to undermine the mail-in vote or any part of the ballot,” the official told reporters on Wednesday.
This story has been updated with additional reporting and background information.
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