Russia targeted people close to Trump in bid to influence 2020 election, US intelligence says stripes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stripes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A just-released assessment by U.S. intelligence officials finds Russia and Iran did seek to influence the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election. But the assessment also concludes that, despite repeated warnings by a number of top Trump officials, China ultimately decided to sit it out. In the run-up to the November election, President Donald Trump, DNI John Ratcliffe, NSC Adviser Robert O’Brien, and AG William Barr. Among other Trump supporters, argued the Chinese interference in the election posed as much of a threat to the election as Russian interference, with Barr arguing that China posed an even greater threat. The intelligence community’s unanimous conclusions that “China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election,” will likely lead to new questions about how the intelligence was presented to the public.
Russia Recalls Ambassador to US After Biden’s Comments About Putin
Russia on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to the United States, coinciding with comments made by President Joe Biden about Russian President Vladimir Putin saying he “will pay a price” and would face punitive actions in the future.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, did not give specific reasons for the recall of Ambassador Anatoly Antonov but stressed that Moscow’s relations with the United States are in a “difficult state,” accusing Washington of bringing them “to a dead-end in recent years.”
“We are interested in preventing their irreversible degradation, if the Americans are aware of the associated risks,” Zakharova said.
Putin approved meddling in US election: report says
AP and Reuters,
WASHINGTON and MOSCOW
Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to help then-US president Donald Trump in the US presidential election in November last year, according to a declassified intelligence assessment that found broad efforts by the Kremlin and Iran to shape the outcome of the race, but ultimately no evidence that any foreign actor changed votes or otherwise disrupted the voting process.
The report, released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence, represents the most detailed assessment of the array of foreign threats to last year’s election. These included efforts by Iran to undermine confidence in the vote and harm Trump’s re-election prospects, as well as Moscow operations that relied on Trump’s allies to smear then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
US: Putin approved operations to help Trump against Biden | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan s News Source infotel.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from infotel.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.