Thread by @FranncescaRobi1

Two teams of federal officials assembled to fight foreign election interference are being dramatically downsized according to 3 current & former DHS officials who fear the department won’t prepare adequately for election threats in 2020.

thedailybeast.com/trumps-dhs-gut…

“The clear assessment from the intelligence community is that 2020 is going to be the perfect storm. We know Russia is going to be engaged. Other state actors have seen the success of Russia & realize the value of disinformation operations.

So it’s very curious why the task forces were demoted in the bureaucracy & the leadership has not committed resources to prepare for the 2020 election.”
1 task force focuses in part on securing election infrastructure & the other focuses on foreign influence efforts including...

...social media disinformation campaigns. Election task force has worked to shield election infrastructure from foreign efforts to change vote counts &foreign influence task force is working to publicly reveal efforts by foreign actors to shape political discourse on social media

This reflects the White House’s lack of interest in beefing up election security according to Paul Rosenzweig. “The failure of the White House to take this seriously is perhaps its single most significant dereliction of duty.”

“Our key allies are wondering why the U.S. is not more coordinated and not more proactive in dealing with this,” said one DHS official. “They don’t understand why the U.S. is not getting its act together.”

Adam Schiff: Trump’s Gutting of DHS Elections-Fraud Task Force is ‘Deeply Concerning’
thedailybeast.com/adam-schiff-tr…