Trump’s aides say Russia still meddling in US elections

Senior intelligence and national security officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump claim that Russia is behind “pervasive and ongoing” attempts to influence upcoming US elections, a threat Trump has repeatedly dismissed and played down.

Trump’s top aides, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, National Security Adviser John Bolton, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen appeared in the White House briefing room on Thursday to stress that a major effort was under way to protect the integrity of congressional elections in November and the presidential election in 2020.

“We acknowledge the threat, it is real, it is continuing, and we’re doing everything we can to have a legitimate election,” Coats said, adding: “It is pervasive, it is ongoing, with the intent to ... drive a wedge and undermine our democratic values.”

Trump has repeatedly denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Moscow and has condemned the ongoing US federal investigations over the alleged meddling, drawing accusations from Democratic and Republican Party lawmakers alike that he is ignoring a threat to American democracy.

A federal special counsel is leading a criminal investigation of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, and any possible cooperation with Trump’s presidential campaign.

 “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16.

But Coats said Russia was to blame, along with other foreign actors. “Russia has used numerous ways in which they want to influence, through media, social media, through bots, through actors that they hire, through proxies - all of the above, and potentially more,” he said.

“We also know the Russians tried to hack into and steal information from candidates and government officials alike,” Coats said, adding that Russia was not the only country working to undermine American elections.

Separately, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters that the Pentagon was also assisting in efforts to safeguard the US voting process. He said the Defense Department was “taking active measures to protect election security including monitoring our adversaries.”

US officials say the illegal activity includes cyber attacks against voting infrastructure, provide illegal campaign financing and criminal efforts to suppress voting.

Facebook said on Tuesday it had uncovered and removed deleted pages and accounts on its website attempting to mislead its users and sow discord among voters ahead of the US congressional elections in November.

It stopped short of identifying the source of the misinformation, but members of Congress briefed by Facebook said the methodology suggested Russian involvement.