JRL NEWSWATCH: “U.S. intelligence briefer appears to have overstated assessment of 2020 Russian interference” – CNN/ Jeremy Diamond, Jake Tapper, Zachary Cohen
“The U.S. intelligence community’s top election security official …, Shelby Pierson, told lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election with the goal of helping … Trump get reelected. [But while t]he US intelligence community has assessed that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election and has separately assessed that Russia views Trump as a leader they can work with. … the U.S. does not have evidence that Russia’s interference this cycle is aimed at reelecting Trump, [three other national security officials] said. ‘The intelligence doesn’t say that’ [according to one.] ‘A more reasonable interpretation … is not that they have a preference, it’s a step short of that. It’s more that they understand the President is someone they can work with, he’s a dealmaker.’…”