Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe spoke off-the-cuff recently when he accused Iran of sending Americans emails “designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President [Donald] Trump.”
Ratcliffe, during a press conference last week, claimed that Iran was responsible for the spate of emails sent to Democratic voters telling them to vote for Trump, threatening, “or we will come after you.”
Although the emails claimed to be sent by the Proud Boys, a far-right group that was referenced during the first presidential debate last month, Ratcliffe did not mention the group in his remarks last week.
"We have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails, designed to intimated voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump," the director said in the press conference. "You may have seen some reporting on this in the last 24 hours or you may have been one of the recipients of these emails."
Two senior administration officials told Politico on Wednesday that Ratcliffe’s comments on Iran were not a part of his prepared remarks on foreign election interference, which were approved by FBI Director Christopher Wray and Chris Krebs, the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency. These officials added that Wray and Krebs were caught off-guard by Ratcliffe’s comments, which came less than 24 hours after the emails were first reported.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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