Grenell: Top counterintel official will take charge of 2020 campaign briefings on election interference
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced Friday that its top counterintelligence official would carry out all election security intelligence briefings to 2020 candidates and campaigns instead of the FBI or Department of Homeland Security. The nation’s top spy office, which oversees all 17 spy agencies and is currently led by acting spy chief Richard Grenell, said that the intelligence community “will lead all intelligence-based threat briefings to candidates, campaigns, and political organizations under the U.S. government’s notification framework.” ODNI said William Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center since 2014, will “serve as the IC’s leader to this critical effort.” The ODNI also announced reforms to the National Counterterrorism Center on Friday. “U.S. elections are the foundation of our nation’s democracy,” Evanina said in a statement. “We are committed to supporting this Administration’s whole-of-government effort to secure the 2020 election.”
Evanina, a former FBI special agent, has led the NCSC since 2014, and, in February 2018, was nominated by President Trump to be the first Senate-confirmed director of the center. He was confirmed by the Senate last week when a two-year standoff ended after Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said Grenell and Attorney General William Barr had provided long-sought transparency for the Trump-Russia congressional investigations. The intelligence community press release stated that having Evanina provide all the campaign briefings on intelligence threats “represents an important improvement and simplification to the threat notification process,” and “the IC will continue to work in partnership with FBI and DHS to identify and integrate threat information.” ODNI said Evanina and the elections team “will act swiftly to deliver the timely and thorough assessments to those affected by potential malicious influence.” An intelligence official told the Washington Examiner that intelligence community leaders believed it made sense for the intelligence community to lead intelligence briefings while noting that election security broadly is about more than just threat briefings. The ODNI official said election security efforts such as the FBI’s Protected Voices initiative and DHS’s cybersecurity and infrastructure protection plans would continue full steam, and the biggest change is that Evanina would lead the 2020 briefings for campaigns to help them guard against foreign interference. National security officials, including Evanina, told lawmakers in March that the intelligence community has not concluded Russia is backing any particular 2020 candidate and warned about interference from multiple countries.
The information appeared in an unclassified ODNI fact sheet, which rejected a stream of media reports on classified briefings on election security. “The IC has not concluded that the Kremlin is directly aiding any candidate’s reelection or any other candidates’ election. Nor have we concluded that the Russians will definitely choose to try to do so in 2020,” the fact sheet read. “This is not a Russia-only problem. China, Iran, other countries like North Korea and Cuba, and non-state actors all have the opportunity, means, and potential motive to interfere in the 2020 elections as a way to achieve their goals.” This statement countered anonymously sourced media reports, which said the intelligence community concluded Russia was helping Trump with reelection and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont win the Democratic primaries.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/grenell-top-counterintel-official-will-take-charge-of-2020-campaign-briefings-on-election-interference
https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/item/2117-acting-dni-grenell-announces-organizational-changes-to-national-counterterrorism-center
https://www.dhs.gov/topic/election-security
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/foreign-influence/protected-voices
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/Foreign_Threats_to_US_Elections.pdf