New reports have emerged claiming that Election security officials in the United States briefed lawmakers last week that Russia was working to undermine and influence the 2020 presidential elections to help Donald Trump win.
According to the New York times, Election security official Shelby Pierson said Russia’s efforts included hacking, use of social media and attacks on election infrastructure and that Russia favors Trump.
A national security official in the Trump administration told CNN that Pierson may have mis-interpreted the intelligence that Russia favored Trump.
The official said “A more reasonable interpretation of the intelligence is not that they have a preference, it’s a step short of that. It’s more that they understand the President is someone they can work with, he’s a dealmaker. But not that they prefer him over (Bernie) Sanders or (Pete) Buttigieg or anyone else. So it may have been mischaracterized by Shelby.”