Trump Administration Dismisses Allegations Of Foreign Meddling In 2018 Midterm Elections

The Trump administration has come to the conclusion there is no proof of foreign meddling in the U.S. midterm elections of Nov. 6, 2018.

A classified report sent on Monday by acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to president Donald Trump found “no evidence to date that any identified activities of a foreign government or foreign agent had material impact on the integrity or security of election infrastructure or political/campaign infrastructure used in the 2018 midterm elections for the United States Congress.”

The report said this finding of foreign non-interference was based on a report prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) pursuant to Executive Order 13848 and is consistent with what was indicated by the U.S. government after the 2018 elections.

The White House won’t make public specific conclusions of the report. The findings will, however, be utilized in future elections. It said “efforts to safeguard the 2020 elections are already underway.”

The report is at odds with media reports and those from social networking firms detailing attempts by Russian trolls to meddle in the midterms through online influence campaigns on the eve of Election Day.

After Nov 6, Election Day, Facebook revealed it had blocked dozens of accounts on Facebook and Instagram linked to Russian trolls. It said those social media accounts might have been linked to the Internet Research Agency, a Russia-based troll farm targeted by special counsel Robert Mueller.

In February 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted Concord Management and Consulting for funding the Internet Research Agency that interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential election won by Trump. Concord Management and Consulting is owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, one of the men closest to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The Special Counsel Investigation by Mueller is looking into the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The investigation began on May 17, 2017 and is ongoing.

Mueller’s office last week revealed that self-proclaimed hackers in Russia stole evidence in an attempt to discredit its investigation of a criminal case for social media conspiracy brought against Concord Management and Consulting.

U.S. prosecutors said in a court filing in Washington that a Twitter handle called @HackingRedstone came online last Oct. 22 to brag it had hacked some of the evidence in the case.

The report sent to Trump made no mention of the DOJ charging Elena Khusyaynova, a Russian, in October 2018 with participating in a conspiracy of “information warfare” against the U.S. by trying to “create and amplify divisive social media and political content.”