Dan Coats, the U.S. director of national intelligence, has been asked to publicly clarify President Trump’s recent comments accusing China of interfering in the 2016 race after privately addressing related questions raised by Senate Democrats.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said that Mr. Coats on Wednesday answered a letter sent by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee concerning Mr. Trump’s unsubstantiated assertions of Chinese election meddling, albeit in a classified response, effectively rendering his reply under wraps.
“You can’t have it both ways,” Mr. Wyden said. “If the president is making public statements about intelligence issues, there’s no excuse for the DNI to hide under his desk.”
Mr. Trump claimed multiple times last month that China “meddled” in the 2016 race, prompting Democrats on the Senate committee including Mr. Wyden and Sens. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Kamala Harris of California to question whether the president’s remarks were “consistent” with the intelligence community’s co assessment.
“DNI Coats has an obligation to the American people to provide a public response to our questions, particularly since this is about America’s elections and the security of our democracy,” Mr. Wyden said in a statement after receiving the classified response Wednesday.
“I’m not asking for every word of the letter to be declassified,” the senator added. “But at the very least, the DNI should say publicly whether or not the president’s statements are consistent with the government’s intelligence assessments.”
Mr. Heinrich received the DNI’s classified response, a representative for the senator confirmed without commenting further.
Representatives for neither the DNI nor Ms. Harris immediately returned messages seeking comment.
Federal agencies including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said last month that China, Russia and Iran are actively attempting “to undermine confidence in democratic institutions and influence public sentiment and government policies,” including through activities that “may seek to influence voter perceptions and decision making in the 2018 and 2020 U.S. elections.”
Officials previously assessed that Russian government meddled in the 2016 race, but the intelligence community has failed to publicize any findings suggesting China behaved similarly.
China has denied attempting to interfere in this month’s U.S. midterm races.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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