An intelligence product that analyzed Russian interference in the 2020 presidential election was potentially compromised by political considerations, including the unusual participation in the review process by the then Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General says in a new report.
The IG cites a whistleblower complaint released by the House Intelligence Community in September 2020, two months before the election, that gives examples of interference by Chad Wolf, who was then the acting head of DHS, telling his acting intelligence chief that “an intelligence product should be ‘held’ because it ‘made the President look bad.’”
The IG says that the whistleblower complaint alleged that the intelligence product about Russian influence was updated without the input of the acting DHS intelligence chief and “equated the actions of China and Iran with the actions Russia, and therefore was misleading and inconsistent with intelligence information.”
The report says that the Office of Intelligence and Analysis added a “tone box” to the intelligence product that described efforts by Chinese and Iranian actors to question the mental health of then-President Trump. The head of the I&A component that called for adding the tone box told the IG part of the reason for doing so was to balance the product and showed I&A’s “political savviness, as the state and local customers of their products tended to be political.”
The IG says that this reasoning goes against “our assessment” of intelligence community standards that “analytic assessments must be independent of political considerations and must not be distorted by, nor shaped for, advocacy of a particular audience, agenda, or policy viewpoint.” It also says the purpose of the tone box for intelligence purposes was “unclear.”
Even though I&A’s own guidance doesn’t describe a role for the DHS secretary to review and approve intelligence products, the IG says the acting secretary delayed the release of the intelligence product, which “potentially furthered the perception of politicization surrounding the product.”
Before the tone box was added, the initial version of intelligence product discussed Russia’s efforts to influence the election by questioning the mental health of Joe Biden, who was then vying to become the Democratic candidate for president. That intelligence product only mentioned Russian activities, the IG says.