Senior DHS official alleges in whistleblower complaint that he was told to stop providing intelligence analysis on threat of Russian interference
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A senior Department of Homeland Security official alleges that he was told to stop providing intelligence analysis on the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 election, in part because it “made the President look bad,” an instruction he believed would jeopardize national security.
Murphy objected to Wolf’s instruction, “stating that it was improper to hold a vetted intelligence product for reasons [of] political embarrassment,” according to a copy of his whistleblower complaint that was obtained by The Washington Post.
Murphy also alleges that two months earlier, Wolf told him to stop producing intelligence assessments on Russia and shift the focus on election interference to China and Iran. He said Wolf told him “that these instructions specifically originated from White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien.”
Murphy’s allegations track with concerns by other officials, as well as Democratic lawmakers and national security experts, that the Trump administration has tried to downplay the threat from Russia.
Murphy appeared to share those concerns, stating that the analysis in the intelligence notification, which he said was eventually leaked to the press, “attempts to place the actions of Russia on par with those of Iran and China in a manner that is misleading and inconsistent with the actual intelligence data.”
DHS plays a key role in guarding against election interference, mainly by working with state and local governments to ensure that electronic voting systems are protected from hackers and outside manipulation. As part of its mission, the department has also sent unclassified bulletins to state and local authorities describing foreign interference.
Murphy stated that after being told to stand down on Russia in May and shift his focus, he made two classified disclosures on the matter in late May to Ken Cucinelli, the second-in-command at DHS. The second occurred after a deputies-level meeting of the National Security Council on election security.
Murphy did not provide further details on what he told Cucinelli, but described his concerns as generally having to do with “abuse of authority, willfully withholding intelligence information from Congress, and the improper administration of an intelligence program.”
Murphy also made a series of allegations in the whistleblower complaint that senior Trump administration officials had pressured him to provide misleading information about suspected terrorists crossing the border with Mexico, as part of an effort to bolster the case for building a border wall.
DHS officials came under pressure from the White House and then-spokesperson Sarah Sanders to provide information on “known suspected terrorists” to support construction of the border wall during the government shutdown in January 2019, a former DHS official confirmed.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, was not party to the communications outlined in Murphy’s complaint, but said they were consistent with the pressure coming from the White House at the time.
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Yawn ..... probably just more anonymous swamp creature speak ......
Probably not.
Probably, yes ......
Definitely not......
Yeah, that sounds about right coming from the left.
So sure without adequate proof.
Yep, now THAT is spot on.
There is more than "adequate" proof.
Well since we know the complaint was filed by Brian Murphy, definitely not.
Yah, you betcha der is .....
National security is never a concern for those afflicted with Trump Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder, i.e. the obsessive and compulsive need to defend Trump regardless of the truth. Chad Wolf has a severe case of Trump OCD.
What "truth" are you talking about?
There is only one truth, and the truth is certainly not Trumpian "alternative facts".
Read the whistleblower complaint:
The hits just keep on coming. In any other era, THIS story would be a bombshell. In the Trump era, it's just another day with a story of corruption and abuse of power.
Just to recap the last couple of DAYS.
Trump KNEW that the Coronaviris was WAY worse than the flu and lied about it.
Trump's USPS toady violated campaign finance law and lied to Congress about it.
Trump thinks our military, living and dead are losers and suckers.
Trump's DHS orders Intelligence analyst to ignore what the elephant in the room is doing and report on the fleas.
Trump's toady at the DOJ files to defend Trump from a defamation suit which puts the American taxpayer on the hook for any monetary penalties.
I know I missed some but the shit is flying so fast and furious it's impossible to keep up with the ciaos.
Nice recap. With Trump, another day, another scandal.
The Trumpster cult members never get tired of defending him though. Fanatics don't worry about minor things like fatigue.
If this same type of story happened during the messiah Obama years, it never would have seen the light of day, but.....Orange man bad, so...
What brought you the that ridiculous unfounded conclusion bugsy?
All anyone need do is refute that Murphy was given those orders and refute that Sec. Nielsen intentionally lied to Congress.
Please proceed.
Again for those that are void of critical thinking.....or expertise
If this same type of story happened during the messiah Obama years, it never would have seen the light of day.
How does that matter in the world of liberalism?
There have been many people who are on the record that said Trump never said what the Atlantic is alleging he said, but yet. the loons on the left still are preaching that Trump hates American servicemen and women.
The liberal revered Dr Anthony Fauci has come out and said there is nothing different in what Trump said in public and what he said in private concerning the lies in the Woodward hit piece, but liberals are still screaming that everything COVID is Trump's fault.....and the media is following along to ensure zero blame goes to democratic mayors and governors.
Face it, Dulay, for most liberals, the hatred for Trump far outweighs any love for this country. Most can't stand Biden, but would vote for a man with obvious dementia just to get rid of Orange man bad.
Actually bugsy, your comment is much more illustrative of someone who is incapable of explaining why they post bullshit.
Wow, that was a crap load of words that utterly FAILS to address the topic of both the seed AND my comment.
I didn't even mention Trump but TRUMP!, right bugsy?
Face it bugsy, for most conservatives, the love for Trump far outweighs any love for this country.
See how well that shit works?
Welp...it looks like you could not refute anything in my posts, just go to insults. Why am I and everyone reading this not surprised?
BTFW, I did address the seed AND your post. You just don't like to see the truth right in front of you.
You have a good day, now...Ya hear...
Post a comment that actually REPLIES to what I posted bugsy. I have no interest in participating in your off topic stream of consciousness.
Trump - Atlantic = OFF TOPIC
Dr. Fauci = OFF TOPIC
Obtuse.
This is likely just one more in a long string of smear tactics foisted on the rest of us by the butt hurt after their chosen one got her ass beat like a rented mule in 2016.
Nothing more, nothing less .... the closer we get to the election, the more i expect it to accelerate.
Hopefully people are smart enough to see it for the bullshit it is.
Thinking people that aren't part of this "resistance" hive will do just that ...........
The butt pain seems to be with those Trump cultists who can't handle the truth about their cult leader.
LOL ..... yah you betcha!
How do you justify 190,000 of our neighbors dead from Covid Sparty when our German cousins have had 9300 deaths to date?
Even when you adjust for the simple population differences they would only have 29,000 dead. Our death rate is over 6.5 times as high.
These numbers point to poor leadership here in America vs. good leadership there in Germany.
I would say that there are 2 factors to the differences in germany and in the US.
major one is the US has 3 times the population which increased the risks .
US population 328.2 million
German population 83,02 million
And the second very big factor is the german population , for centuries , are well known to do as they are told by their governments
Americans , not so much......
US deaths per 1m population 588
German deaths per 1m population 118
The population argument doesn't fly Mark.
Or that the Germans are a hell of a lot smarter than Americans and realized that short term pain (masks etc) will result in long term gain.
I agree.
Poor leadership in the places where the most people have contracted COVID and died. That is, Democrat ruled cities like New York City. NYC has had nearly 24,000 deaths, that's one death per every 350 people and over 10% of the total deaths in the USA. By comparison the county where i live has one death per every 13,000 people.
So if you want to go there and blame Trump for those 190,00 deaths, please explain to me why he did about 40 times better in my county than he did in NYC.
This should be good ......
I think we can agree to disagree about the population aspect , i am of the mind that 300 mil vs 83 mil presents the greater number has a higher chance of infection risk. AND as i said there is a very definite culture difference when it comes to americans vs germans , the germans have always been know for being methodical , which is where i think you may say they are smarter, but also very authoritarian , to the point of being militaristic authoritarians so they would have a greater perpencity to do as they are told by their governments past present and future. It is almost like it is part of their genetic make up.
AND like i said americans are not like that at all , americans seem to have a rebelious streak in the genome no matter who is in power of the government. and who would actually have any authority.
i think we can agree americans can be stubborn to the point of stupidity , only because they can not see that there is never just one way to do things , that often times there can be multiple solutions to a single problem.
Thats one of the reasons i am a self confessed hermit.
Thats about where the chances for the state of wyo is right now , pop of 578759 with 42 covid related deaths
My county is a little riskier pop of 39261 and 14 deaths
and 10 of those in the county have been within 10 miles of my house.
I don't think so Mark. the population density of the US is 93 people per square mile. In Germany, the population density is 623 people per square mile. The higher the density the quicker and deadlier the virus will be.
I can't disagree with that, Mark.
Indeed we are. After all, it's our right to display our stupidity for the world to see. So we kill off a couple of hundred thousand. What's that compared to our right to be stupid.
It's one of the reasons that I prefer working with dogs than being around humans.
Only issue i have with that is , the population is not evenly dispersed , NYC is more densely populated than where i live on the wind river res, and even then the res is in places more densely populated than say chugwater
there are still , conceivably places in the US that no one lives , and conceivably no person has actually set foot .
Which leads me back to more people the higher the risk of transmission , just as you say the population density per square mile is higher in germany , thats another factor to consider , but the US also has more square miles to disperse the population density , but i would bet doughnuts to fry bread that if one factors in how densely populated the urban areas are per square mile per their borders , they would out number german density per square mile.
just googled the population density of NYC per square mile, 27000 people per square mile
Population density of Wyoming , 6 people per square mile
population density of the Wind River Indian Reservation 7.7 per square mile.
The population density of Berlin is 9,000 sq mile. Total death from COVID 226.
On the other hand, Tapai Taiwan has a population density of 25,000 sq mile and total death of 7. Yes that is correct, seven (7)
Population density of Red Lake Ojibwe Reservation 6.67 people per square mile. Total death 1.
Very early on the Chairman declared ''Medical Martial Law'' which is legal under our constitution. Since we are fairly unique in being a closed reservation which gives us a lot of latitude in the implementation of our own laws and requirements.
All that aside the fact is density can be devastating to the population or, as with Taipai, the correct and early measures stopped it in its tracks.
I'll take the frybread, miigwetch.
they did pretty much the same thing here on WRIR and could do so by law , with a mandatory stay at home order for those not in essential jobs , so i just continued to go off rez working. now how effective it was with non tribal members living on the rez and actual jurisdictional authorities is something i never faced because of the exclusions included in the orders. in other words , they didnt affect me at all.
I also notice the differences between the 2 rezs , 1 there , 10 here that i know of for sure ,with pretty much the same restrictions.
My guess is that it has more to do with travel than anything else. And specifically to and from the hot spots where it started. Not sure but i would be surprised that anywhere in Germany had the density of travel to and from hot spots in China that places like NYC had. Sure, how it was handled after the virus arrived is applicable as well but people forget the following.
The virus doesn't leave China, no one outside China gets sicks. That is just the reality of it.
Here is a definition of a ''closed rez''
On our rez it's not possible for a non Red Lake member or a non Indian to purchase any property. The vast majority of people living on Red Lake are enrolled members of the Red Lake Band the others are either a wife or husband of an enrolled member.
You live on a rez?
Yeah, i didn't really expect an answer ....
What county do you live in.....? We can do the math related to population density, and proximity to those traveling in from Europe. There might also be some effect from temperature.....
The US infection came from Europe Sparty....
Sure the virus originated from China, and radiated from there, but this administration had weeks, if not months of warning of where it was and what could be done to mitigate it's impact. The majority of it flew in from Europe.
What was decided to do, or not do about it once it reached our shores is what set us along the path that has us at 190,000 dead and counting. That's just the reality of it That is 100% on the Trump administration.
I don't expect you to admit that you've been wrong about Trump, but I do expect the deflection to stop and facts to take hold. You don't have to be part of the solution, but just stop supporting the problem.
Not currently, but I was raised on Red Lake rez and return yearly to visti friends and family.
The infection came from China, Navy, and radiated out from there. All Trump did was. as many of you on the left like to harp on, follow the science as it became available. A little timeline refresher will be informative here:
Dec. 10: Wei Guixian, one of the earliest known coronavirus patients, starts feeling ill.
Dec. 16: Patient admitted to Wuhan Central Hospital with infection in both lungs but resistant to anti-flu drugs. Staff later learned he worked at a wildlife market connected to the outbreak.
Dec. 27: Wuhan health officials are told that a new coronavirus is causing the illness.
Dec. 30:
Dec. 31:
Jan. 1: Wuhan Public Security Bureau brings in for questioning eight doctors who had posted information about the illness on WeChat.
Jan. 2: Chinese researchers map the new coronavirus' complete genetic information. This information is not made public until Jan. 9.
Jan. 7: Xi Jinping becomes involved in the response.
Jan. 9: China announces it has mapped the coronavirus genome.
Jan. 11–17: Important prescheduled CCP meeting held in Wuhan. During that time, the Wuhan Health Commission insists there are no new cases.
Jan. 13: First coronavirus case reported in Thailand, the first known case outside China.
Jan. 14: WHO announces Chinese authorities have seen "no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus."
Jan. 15: The patient who becomes the first confirmed U.S. case leaves Wuhan and arrives in the U.S., carrying the coronavirus.
Jan. 18:
Jan. 19: Beijing sends epidemiologists to Wuhan.
Jan. 20:
Jan. 21:
Jan. 23: Wuhan and three other cities are put on lockdown. Right around this time, approximately 5 million people leave the city without being screened for the illness. Repeat, 5 million people leave the city without being screened for the illness.
Jan. 24–30: China celebrates the Lunar New Year holiday. Hundreds of millions of people are in transit around the country as they visit relatives.
Jan. 24: China extends the lockdown to cover 36 million people and starts to rapidly build a new hospital in Wuhan. From this point, very strict measures continue to be implemented around the country for the rest of the epidemic.
Jan 31: On 31 January 2020, the United States declared the virus a public health emergency. People other than U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and their immediate family were prohibited from entering the U.S. within 14 days of being in China. Many top Democrats and media personnel immediately label the move unnecessary and xenophobic. This reality is regularly forgotten, glossed over or rationalized to be something else by the TDS ridden left.
Feb 2: all inbound passengers who had been to Hubei in the previous 14 days were placed under quarantine for up to 14 days. American citizens who have traveled to the rest of mainland China were allowed to continue their travel home if they were asymptomatic, but would be monitored by local health departments.
Mar 2: foreign nationals who have traveled to Iran within the past 14 days were denied permission to enter the U.S.[136] American citizens and permanent residents returning to the United States who had travelled to Iran within the previous 14 days had to enter through an approved airport.
On 13 March at 23:59 ET, incoming travel from the Schengen area in Europe was suspended. The official proclamation on 11 March stated that this restriction applied only to foreign nationals traveling to the United States, if they have been to a country within the Schengen area in the past 14 days. The ban does not apply to, for example, legal permanent residents and most immediate family members of U.S. citizens. Also, cargo and trading goods were not affected. On 14 March, the Trump administration extended the ban to include the United Kingdom and Ireland. The restrictions were put in place for a period of 30 days, however the official proclamation did not contain that time limit, stating; "This proclamation shall remain in effect until terminated by the President. The move was criticized by EU leaders and many of the same people who criticized Trumps move to ban travel to and from China on Jan 31st.
I could go on but this takes us through the crucial periods you speak of.
The fact of the matter is, had Trump shut down travel to and from Europe when he shut down China, you likely would have been one of the first to flip out. Just like all the people who flipped out when he shut down China. Which also likely included you and others here. I could get into all the dumb moves made by local politicians in big cities that killed people but it will just fall on deaf ears so there really is no point to it
That said, laying all the blame for 190k Covid deaths in the US on Trump and Trump only is simply an obtusely unsophisticated analysis and reeks of partisan bias/hypocrisy.
and their hive mind mentality
In "normal" times a story like this would have ended careers including possibly the president's. Unfortunately with Trump in office and lying constantly it's not going to get the attention it deserves. I guess they have to find out "what did Trump know and when did he know it?"
I watched a documentary about Nixon and Watergate on Hulu last night.
It's uncanny how parallel his scandal was to what is going on today.
In "normal times" Trump would have been impeached over a dozen times by now, and be long gone from office.
Just finished reading the complaint. This is actually the 3rd complaint that Murphy has submitted. The first two were anonymous. ALL of them accuse Kirstjen Nielsen of intentionally lying to Congress. They also tried to get him to falsify intelligence about Known and Suspected Terrorist crossing the boarder. They wanted him to change it to match Trumps agenda. Nielsen testified that it was over 3000, even though Murphy reported only 3. The DHS actually released a document about it that fabricated the intelligence which really pissed Murphy off.