Trump releases declassified election intelligence, says it reveals ‘shocking vulnerabilities’
President Donald Trump addressed the nation Thursday evening on "free and fair" elections, announcing the declassification of critical intelligence that reveals, as he said, "shocking vulnerabilities" related to "hacking, exploitation and foreign interference."
"This vital information is for many years been covered up and hidden from you," Trump said. "The American people are beautiful, our great American people. But that all changes right now."
Documents were posted to the White House website during the president's speech.
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The speech came as his administration has aggressively pushed policies, legislation and executive orders to secure U.S. elections.
"The documents we will release starting tonight have been gathered by the White House Government Transparency Taskforce, a great group of people, along with the staff of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, supported by our top intelligence agency chiefs, who have all personally reviewed the findings we are presenting this evening and fully confirmed their authenticity," Trump said Thursday.
Leading up to the address, Trump teased that his speech would be "big news." Trump touted his new Trump Accounts and spoke about how his administration has lowered drug prices, reduced crime and strengthened the border — with the main focus on securing American elections.
The White House released four sections of documents focused on alleged vulnerabilities in electronic voting and ballot-counting systems, China’s acquisition and exploitation of American voter data, Michigan voter-registration investigation and noncitizens on state voter rolls.
Trump said China obtained information about American voters such as names, addresses, phone numbers, political affiliations and other personal information to form a dedicated unit to exploit the voter data it had acquired.
Reports from the CIA and National Security Agency about China’s interference were kept out of Trump’s almost daily presidential briefings, Trump claimed. Trump also said Congress also was not notified.
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"One email among intelligence analysts admitted that they had, quote, deliberately massaged the presidential daily briefing to withhold information regarding Chinese activities related to the election," Trump said.
Trump called on the director of national intelligence, the Department of Justice, the FBI and the CIA to launch an investigation and, if appropriate, fire and press criminal charges against those involved.
