Threat Management, Threat Intelligence, Network Security

DHS’s Nielsen frustrates lawmakers with claim not to have read intel that Russia meddled to help Trump

After Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she hadn't seen the intelligence reports that concluded that Russia's meddling in the U.S. presidential election helped Donald Trump gain the White House, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee emailed members of the press two reports and a copy of an indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

“I honestly can't believe I have to keep doing this,” was the subject line of the email sent by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the Daily Beast reported.

Warner also tweeted the findings of the report, saying, “@SecNielsen, you're our front line of defense against the Russian cyber threat. Please read the ICA report. Its conclusions couldn't be clearer.”

Warner was responding to Nielsen's comments on Tuesday that she did “not believe that [she'd] seen the conclusion that the specific intent was to help President Trump win” but noted that she has “generally no reason to doubt any intelligence assessment.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Russia was not out to help him win.

But, still stinging from hacks against organizations associated with the Democrat Party and the effects of the Russian influence campaign, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) filed a lawsuit in April in a federal district court in Manhattan against the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks and the Russian government for conspiring to swing the election toward Donald Trump.

“During the 2016 presidential campaign, Russia launched an all-out assault on our democracy, and it found a willing and active partner in Donald Trump's campaign,” according to a statement at the time from DNC Chairman Tom Perez, who called the efforts “an act of unprecedented treachery: the campaign of a nominee for President of the United States in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the presidency.”

The multimillion-dollar lawsuit, aimed at members of the Trump campaign, including the president's son Donald Trump, Jr., details what it calls Russia's “brazen attack on U.S. soil” and evidence that campaign aides like the younger Trump and former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos knew that Russia had dirt on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and instead of disclosing it used it to promote Trump's presidential run.

Nielson did say she had no doubt that the nation-state “did and will continue to try to manipulate Americans' perspective on a whole variety of issues.”

Get daily email updates

SC Media's daily must-read of the most current and pressing daily news

By clicking the Subscribe button below, you agree to SC Media Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.