The spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump refuted Thursday a report that the Republican plans to revamp U.S. intelligence agencies in the wake of Obama administration claims that Russian hackers helped Mr. Trump to win the election.
“There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure,” said Sean Spicer, incoming White House press secretary. “It is 100 percent false.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Trump plans to slim down the headquarters of CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence after expressing skepticism about the accuracy of U.S. intelligence gathering.
Mr. Spicer said the transition team’s activities with government agencies “are for information-gathering purposes, and all discussions are tentative.”
“The president-elect’s top priority will be to ensure the safety of the American people and the security of the nation, and he’s committed to finding the best and most effective ways to do it,” Mr. Spicer said.
As the government’s intelligence chiefs testified Thursday to the Senate Armed Services Committee about foreign hacking, Mr. Spicer also called attention to a report that the FBI has not contacted the Democratic National Committee or requested its servers to validate claims of Russian hacking during the presidential campaign.
“I would equate this to no one actually going to the crime scene to actually look at the evidence,” Mr. Spicer said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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