The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Senior DHS official alleges in whistleblower complaint that he was told to stop providing intelligence analysis on threat of Russian interference

September 9, 2020 at 3:42 p.m. EDT
President Trump, flanked by Attorney General William P. Barr and acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf, speaks in Kenosha, Wis., on Sept. 1. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

A senior Department of Homeland Security official alleges that he was told to stop providing intelligence reports on the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 election, in part because it “made the President look bad,” an instruction he believed would jeopardize national security.

The official, Brian Murphy, who until recently was in charge of intelligence and analysis at DHS, said in a whistleblower complaint that on two occasions he was told to stand down on reporting about the Russian threat and alleged that senior officials told him to modify other intelligence reports, including about white supremacists, to bring them in line with President Trump’s public comments, directions he said he refused.