DHS chief reignites debate over Russian election meddling findings

Confusion and anger briefly reigned on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning after Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen appeared to express unfamiliarity with one of the intelligence community’s key conclusions about Russian interference in the 2016 election -�that the Kremlin intended to help Donald Trump get elected.

“I do not believe that I’ve seen that conclusion that the specific intent was to help President Trump win,” she told reporters at the Capitol. “I’m not aware of that.”

But just hours after Nielsen’s remarks began making the rounds – drawing rebukes from Democrats — the Department of Homeland Security issued a lengthy statement emphasizing that Nielsen "has previously reviewed" the intelligence community’s assessment "and agrees with it."

Still, her comments -�delivered at a press conference following a Capitol Hill briefing for lawmakers on election security efforts – renewed a long-running debate over whether the Trump administration is publicly undercutting its own behind-the-scenes work to prevent digital election meddling.

That Russian President Vladimir Putin developed a clear preference for a Trump victory was at the heart of an assessment by the FBI, CIA and NSA delivered in January 2017, shortly before Trump took office.

The assessment concluded with "high confidence" that "Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump." The agencies also said that the Kremlin "aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him."

DHS spokesman Tyler Houlton said the secretary’s initial response was to a question that didn’t include that specific nuance of the intelligence community’s assessment -�that Russia had developed a "clear preference" for Trump.

"The intelligence assessment language is nuanced for a reason," Houlton said. "The Secretary agrees with that assessment."

The question posed by the reporter, though, seemed to track with the intelligence community’s ultimate findings: "Do you any reason to doubt the Jan 2017 intelligence community assessment that said it was Vladimir Putin who meddled in the election to help President Trump win?"

The immediate outcry over the initial comments reflects a long-simmering point of disagreement on Capitol Hill. Some Republicans in Congress have disputed the finding that the Kremlin aimed to boost Trump’s election chances. House Intelligence Committee Republicans in April alleged that the conclusion was based on poor "tradecraft."

But the Senate Intelligence Committee, in a bipartisan fashion, recently affirmed the conclusion. And all major intelligence community leaders – including those appointed by Trump – have endorsed the finding.

Nielsen was clear that she supports, broadly speaking, the intelligence community’s findings about Russian meddling.

“I do generally have no reason to doubt any intelligence assessment,” she said.

Pressed on her knowledge of the intelligence community assessment, Nielsen offered what she described as her "opinion" on Russia’s goals and said they seemed to sowing general disruption.

"What we have seen the Russians do is attempt to manipulate public confidence on both sides, right?" she said. "So we’ve seen them encourage people to go to a protest on one side. We’ve seen them simultaneously encourage people to go to that same protest on the other side."

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team laid out these online manipulation tactics in a February indictment of 13 Russians and three Russian entities. But Mueller, too, concluded that the Russian efforts tracked with a broader push to hurt Clinton and help Trump.

"I think what they’re trying to do, in my opinion – and I defer the intel community – is just disrupt our belief and our own understanding of what’s happening," Nielsen continued. "It’s an integrity issue."

Nielsen’s initial remarks immediately fed into a narrative that Democrats have long promoted -�that the Trump administration is harming efforts to secure America’s elections from foreign interference.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, described himself as "shocked" upon first hearing about the comment.

"I sincerely hope the Secretary’s comments today were not just rhetorical gymnastics to placate the President," he said in a statement.

Trump himself has received the most criticism from lawmakers for his refusal to publicly tout the importance of election security, even as his own administration works diligently with state and local officials to bolster their digital defenses.

In addition to Nielsen, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats also briefed lawmakers Tuesday on these election security efforts. Roughly 40 to 50 House members attended, according to one attendee.

"These are good people, but they’re a little constrained by the refusal of their boss to call an attack an attack," said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence panel’s NSA and cybersecurity subcommittee.

One lawmaker who attended the classified briefing told POLITICO, "there’s a disconnect between what the president is saying and doing."

"If you just listen to [the people who briefed the House], they seem to be taking protecting our elections seriously, but then the president basically contradicts them often with what he says about no Russian interference," the lawmaker added.

Indeed, in a joint statement issued after the gathering, Wray, Coats, and Nielsen called their election security work "a vital national interest."

"This is an issue that the Administration takes seriously and is addressing with urgency," they added.

The original story can be found here.