DHS Withheld Intel Bulletin Warning Of Russian Attack On Biden's Mental Health: Report
The Department of Homeland Security withheld an intelligence bulletin from federal, local and state law enforcement agencies that warned of a Russian scheme to portray Joe Biden as mentally unfit to serve as U.S. president, ABC News reported Wednesday.
The draft bulletin from July, titled “Russia Likely to Denigrate Health of US Candidates to Influence 2020 Election,” said U.S. intelligence analysts had determined Russian agents were trying to convince voters that the Democratic presidential candidate has dementia.
The document largely focused on Russia peddling “allegations about the poor mental health” of Biden, but it also mentioned that state media in Iran and China were raising questions about President Donald Trump’s mental fitness, according to ABC News, which obtained the draft bulletin.
“We assess Russian malign influence actors are likely to continue denigrating presidential candidates through allegations of poor mental or physical health to influence the outcome of the 2020 elections,” the document read.
The draft bulletin was reportedly submitted to DHS’s legislative and public affairs office for review on July 7, but was not disseminated to the agency’s law enforcement partners two days later as initially planned.
DHS chief of staff John Gountanis reportedly blocked the bulletin from being released, instructing agency officials to “hold on sending this one out” until it could be reviewed by acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolfe.
A DHS spokesperson told ABC News that the bulletin was “delayed” because it “lacked the necessary context and evidence for broader dissemination.” DHS intelligence leaders “decided to delay the product for further review” after Wolfe was briefed on it and asked questions about it, the spokesperson said.
The DHS spokesperson also told ABC News that the agency has shared three other reports on election security with state and local law enforcement. It’s unclear if those...
