C.I.A. Reasserts Putin Is Likely Directing Election Influence Efforts to Aid Trump
Source: MSN/NY Times
WASHINGTON — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is most likely continuing to approve and direct interference operations aimed at raising President Trump’s re-election chances, a recent C.I.A. analysis concluded, a signal that intelligence agencies continue to back their assessment of Russian activities despite the president’s attacks.
The assessment was disseminated in support of sanctions imposed this month on Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker who has spread information critical of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. It is consistent with intelligence officials’ warning to lawmakers in January that Russia was interfering on Mr. Trump’s behalf, a briefing that outraged Republicans and eventually helped oust Joseph Maguire from his post as acting director of national intelligence.
The C.I.A. has moderate confidence in its analysis, a lower degree of certainty than its 2016 assessment of Mr. Putin’s preferences, in part because the intelligence community appears to lack intercepted communications or other direct evidence confirming his direction of Mr. Derkach’s efforts. Mr. Putin, a former intelligence agent, is careful not to use electronic devices.
According to people familiar with the matter, the new analysis was published ahead of the sanctions in the C.I.A. Worldwide Intelligence Review, a classified document that circulates to members of Congress and the Trump administration. The Washington Post earlier reported the assessment.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cia-reasserts-putin-is-likely-directing-election-influence-efforts-to-aid-trump/ar-BB19jq1g?li=BBnb7Kz
This is why the fund raising numbers are not too helpful. Republicans have the advantage of both right wing media pushing out Republican propaganda to keep supporters and other Republicans in line, but they also have Russia, which can both amplify pro-Trump conspiracies, as well as spread disinformation on the left promoting competing progressive groups like the Green Party, which attack Democrats from the "left."
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