Russia, China, Iran are trying to ‘compromise the private communications’ of campaigns’

The counterintelligence chief for the federal government issued a stark warning about foreign interference for the upcoming 2020 election, echoing similar sentiments from presidential candidate Joe BIden. 

Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, shared that the adversaries had already begun trying to compromise communications between campaigns.   

‘Today, we see our adversaries seeking to compromise the private communications of U.S. political campaigns, candidates and other political targets,’ he said, according to ABC News.

‘Our adversaries also seek to compromise our election infrastructure,’ he added, ‘and we continue to monitor malicious cyber actors trying to gain access to U.S. state and federal networks, including those responsible for managing elections.’

Evanina specifically highlighted the actions of China, Russia and Iran but noted that ‘other nation-states and non-state actors could also do harm to our electoral process.’

Most notably, Evanina mentioned efforts to ‘compromise the private communications’ of campaigns – echoing similar actions taken by Russia to hack the private emails of John Podesta, a senior campaign advisor for Hillary Clinton. 

Evanina did express confidence in the federal government’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies to stop those efforts.  

He concluded by ‘committing to update the American public and other key stakeholders on threats to the election and steps for mitigation.’ 

Evanina’s Friday warning comes a week after former Vice President Joe Biden issued his own during a virtual campaign event

Evanina’s Friday warning comes a week after former Vice President Joe Biden issued his own caution during a virtual campaign event. 

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee wasn’t specific and offered no evidence while addressing a virtual fundraiser with more than 200 attendees. But, in the process, he confirmed receiving classified briefings after saying as recently as late last month that he wasn’t getting them but might request one about reports of Russian bounties being offered on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

‘We know from before, and I guarantee you I know now because now I get briefings again. The Russians are still engaged, trying to de-legitimize our electoral process. Fact,’ Biden said. ‘China and others are engaged as well in activities designed for us to lose confidence in the outcome.’ 

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, cast doubt on Evanina’s confidence when expressing how much info would be shared

Biden released a condemnation of the activity, putting the Kremlin and other governments ‘on notice.’  

‘If elected president, I will treat foreign interference in our election as an adversarial act that significantly affects the relationship between the United States and the interfering nation’s government,’ Biden wrote.  

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, cast doubt on Evanina’s confidence when expressing how much info would be shared. 

‘I don’t have that confidence at all,’ Schiff told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. ‘I have serious concerns about the statement that was just put out … in the warnings that are given, they are so generic, in some ways, as to be meaningless.’ 

He criticized Trump and his administration’s comments for mail-in voting as ways in which the Russians were already succeeding in sowing chaos.

‘The Russians will look for any divide they can to sow chaos in the United States. And what better way to amplify false information about how millions of Americans cast their votes?’