Whistleblower alleges top Trump appointees abused authority by telling officials to alter intelligen

[demmiblue]

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN)A whistleblower is alleging that top political appointees in the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly instructed career officials to modify intelligence assessments to ensure they matched up with misleading public comments from President Donald Trump about Antifa and "anarchist" groups, according to documents reviewed by CNN and a source familiar with the situation.

Specifically, acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and Acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Ken Cuccinelli, both Trump appointees, directed officials to change intelligence assessments based on Trump's political rhetoric, an order the whistleblower says amounted to an abuse of authority, according to the documents.

Both Wolf and Cuccinelli also tried to alter a report to downplay the threat posed by White supremacists and instead emphasize the role of leftist groups due to concerns about how the initial language would reflect on the President, according to a source familiar with the claims raised by the whistleblower.

DHS did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment regarding allegations that Wolf and Cuccinelli ordered officials to change intelligence assessments for political reasons but have broadly denied either man took actions that constitute as an abuse of power, as stated in the complaint.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/dhs-whistleblower-white-supremacist-threat/index.html

[2naSalit]

1. K&R

[COLGATE4]

2. I don't know anything about Wolf. Cuccinelli is a snake of

the first magnitude. I hope this bites both of them in the ass, big time!

[SheltieLover]

3. K&R!

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Story updated: Whistleblower accuses Trump appointees of downplaying Russian interference and ...

... White supremacist threat

Now starts:

Washington (CNN)A whistleblower is alleging that top political appointees in the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly instructed career officials to modify intelligence assessments to suit President Donald Trump's agenda by downplaying Russia's efforts to interfere in the US and the threat posed by White supremacists, according to documents reviewed by CNN and a source familiar with the situation.

The whistleblower claims that acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf instructed DHS officials earlier this year to "cease providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference" and, instead, focus their efforts on gathering information related to activities being carried out by China and Iran.

Trump and several of his top national security advisers have repeatedly sought to emphasize the threat posed by China in recent months while downplaying the intelligence community's warnings related to Russian interference in the 2020 election.