Politico | It’s William Evanina’s job to fight Russian election meddling. But Donald Trump is putting him in an awkward spot
- US counter-intelligence chief in political crosshairs after report that China wants ‘unpredictable’ US president to lose in November election
- Democrats say statement played down severity of Russian threat and was made to appease Trump in ways that corrupted intelligence process
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Natasha Bertrand on politico.com on August 18, 2020.
A little over two years ago, America’s top national security and intelligence officials, including the FBI director, director of National Intelligence and national security adviser, held a rare joint press conference at the White House to discuss the Trump administration’s approach to combating election interference from Russia.
“It’s going to take all of us working together to hold the field, because this threat is not going away,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said at the time. “As I have said consistently: Russia attempted to interfere with the last election, and continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day.”
John Bolton, then the national security adviser, warned of “international action” in response to any interference, and the reinforcement of “a strong sanctions regime”.
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It was the second time President Donald Trump’s top national security officials had weighed in that year specifically on election security, and the third time the senior officials had spoken publicly about the most pressing national security threats facing the country.
By that point, according to the White House, Trump had taken part in several National Security Council meetings to discuss “the whole-of-government approach” to combating foreign interference and holding meddlers accountable.
