- CIA director Mike Pompeo claimed that US intelligence agencies believed Russian interference did not affect the results of the 2016 US presidential election.
- The CIA never came to that conclusion and released a statement that clarified Pompeo's remarks.
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CIA issues a correction after Mike Pompeo said Russian meddling 'did not affect the outcome of the election'
After Pompeo said that US intelligence agencies believed Russia's interference in the 2016 election "did not affect the outcome," the CIA issued a statement.
Following CIA director Mike Pompeo's assertion that US intelligence agencies believed Russia's campaign to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election "did not affect the outcome," the CIA issued a statement that clarified Pompeo's statement on Thursday, according to NBC News.
"The intelligence assessment with regard to Russian election meddling has not changed, and the director did not intend to suggest that it had," spokesman Ryan Trapani said.
Speaking at the national security summit in Washington, Pompeo said: "We conducted an election that had integrity. And yes, the intelligence community's assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election."
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However, the report by US intelligence agencies concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin had initiated a complicated campaign that spanned multiple aspects of the contentious election, per NBC. Although the intelligence report concluded that Russia had meddled with the election, it stopped short of assessing the impact of the election, contrary to Pompeo's remarks.
"We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election," the public version of the report said, reports NBC News. "The U.S. Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze U.S. political processes or U.S. public opinion."
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