Trump downplays massive cyber hack on government after Pompeo links attack to Russia
By Veronica Stracqualursi, Kevin Liptak and Jennifer Hansler, CNN Updated 2:26 PM ET, Sat December 19, 2020 (CNN) President Donald Trump on Saturday downplayed a massive cyberattack on US federal government agencies, contradicting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's public remarks linking the hack to Russia and leaving administration officials scrambling to reconcile the competing statements, according to people familiar with the matter. "This was a very significant effort, and I think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity," Pompeo had said of the cyber hack in an interview Friday on "The Mark Levin Show," adding: "I can't say much more as we're still unpacking precisely what it is, and I'm sure some of it will remain classified." But Trump, in his first public comments on the issue, appeared to undercut Pompeo's remarks in a pair of tweets Saturday, suggesting without evidence "it may be China" that's responsible. Instead of condemning the attack, or Russia, he wrote that he had been "fully briefed and everything is well under control" -- despite officials in his administration having said this week that the cyberattack "poses a grave risk" to networks across both the public and private sector. White House officials had drafted a statement assigning blame to Russia for the attack and were preparing to release it Friday afternoon but were told to stand down, according to people familiar with the plans. Officials initially weren't told why the statement was pulled back. The statement, the people said, placed blame on Russia for orchestrating the attack but left open the possibility that other actors were involved. The people familiar told CNN on Saturday it wasn't clear whether the statement will be released, and instead described a scramble inside the administration as officials work to reconcile the competing statements from Trump and Pompeo. The President was briefed on the attack on Thursday. Trump also baselessly claimed in the tweets that the attack could have impacted US voting machines. A group of national, state and private election officials said in a joint statement last month that there is no evidence of any voting system being compromised in the 2020 election. < - > https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics/pompeo-us-government-hack-russia/index.html _______________________________________________ Infowarrior mailing list Infowarrior@attrition.org https://attrition.org/mailman/listinfo/infowarrior
