Caroline O.
@RVAwonk
Once again, CIA Director Mike Pompeo attempts to downplay the significance of Russian interference in 2016 election
CIA director distorts intelligence community’s findings on Russian interference
www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/national-security/cia-director-distorts-intelligence-communitys-findings-on-russian-interference/2017/10/19/d7f8e05e-b4ed-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html
"The intelligence community's assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election," Pompeo said at a security conference in Washington.
His comment suggested — falsely — that a report released by U.S. intelligence agencies in January had ruled out any impact that could be attributed to a covert Russian interference campaign that involved leaks of tens of thousands of stolen emails, the flooding of social media sites with false claims and the purchase of ads on Facebook.
A report compiled by the CIA and other agencies described that Russian operation as unprecedented in its scale and concluded that Moscow's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process and help elect Donald Trump.
[...]Former U.S. intelligence officials voiced concern over Pompeo's statement.
"This is another example of Pompeo politicizing intelligence," a former senior U.S. intelligence official said. Pompeo "is the most political CIA director since Bill Casey" during the Reagan administration, the former official said. "This significantly undermines the intelligence community's credibility."
[...[A CIA spokesman denied that Pompeo intended to mislead the public with his remarks. "The intelligence assessment with regard to Russian election meddling has not changed," said the spokesman, Ryan Trapani, "and the director did not intend to suggest that it had."