Donald Trump’s DHS Reportedly Withheld Intelligence On Russian Attacks On Joe Biden’s Mental Health
A Wednesday report from ABC News claimed that Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security withheld information that suggested the presence of a Russian disinformation campaign that attacked Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s mental health.
According to the report, the bulletin was directed at informing U.S. law enforcement agencies of the purported Kremlin plan.
“Please hold on sending this one out until you have a chance to speak to [acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf],” DHS Chief of Staff John Gountanis allegedly wrote in an email that was obtained by ABC News.
The bulletin concluded with “high-confidence” that Russian agents would continue to attempt to undermine presidential candidates by attacking their mental or physical health.
Elizabeth Neumann, a former assistant secretary of DHS during the Trump administration, touched on the language used in the report.
“High confidence means what it sounds like — that they are highly confident that their assessment is accurate and they don’t use that language very often.”
In response to the ABC News report, a DHS spokesperson claimed that the bulletin’s release was “delayed” due to issues with its quality. But Andrew Bates, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, suggested that the decision to withhold the information was linked to Trump’s political aspirations.
“He is blocking the intelligence community from sharing with federal and state law enforcement a crucial finding: that Russia is disseminating false and scurrilous attacks on the health of Joe Biden — one that aligns with Trump’s own constantly-backfiring attacks.”
Biden’s alleged cognitive decline has been a focal point for Trump and his allies, who paint the former vice president as unfit for office. Conservative commentator Dan Bongino previously claimed that sources told him Biden’s purported cognitive decline is becoming increasingly difficult to hide.
As The Inquisitr reported, Bongino was alleged to have been meeting with the White House in March to discuss helping the president with his viral messaging.
The reports of the disinformation campaign come in the wake of Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, announcing an end to congressional briefings on election security issues. In response, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened Ratcliffe with a letter that highlighted the importance of keeping Americans aware of possible threats to their elections.
“This intelligence belongs to the American people, and they have a right to know more about ongoing foreign efforts to influence their votes and interfere in our democratic process,” she wrote in the statement.
