CIA's Pompeo asserts Russian meddling did not sway US election result
CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Thursday said, apparently inaccurately, that U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Russian interference did not affect the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election.
In fact, US intelligence agencies in January said that they had made no assessment one way or the other on the impact of Moscow's hacking and propaganda campaign but its report stated that Russia's aim was to try and help then-Republican candidate Donald Trump's election chances.
Pompeo, a former Republican congressman and Trump ally, was asked at an event in Washington if he could say with absolute certainty that the election results were not skewed as a result of Russian interference. Pompeo replied: "Yes. Intelligence community's assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election."
The top Democrat on the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, criticized Pompeo for his remark.
"I was deeply disappointed to learn that CIA Director Pompeo today asserted that the intelligence community had found that Russian interference in our election did not affect the outcome. In fact, the Intelligence community made no such finding, nor could it," Schiff said in a statement that noted the January assessment.
