Trump to allege China accessed US voter data and CIA withheld intelligence from him: Report
WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump is preparing to deliver a primetime address on Thursday night, July 16, in which he is expected to allege that China secretly compromised US voter registration data ahead of the 2020 election.
According to sources familiar with the matter cited by CBS News, Trump is also expected to claim that the CIA possessed intelligence about the alleged intrusion but withheld it from him during his first term.
The address, which Trump announced earlier this week without providing many details, is expected to draw on previously unreported intelligence.
It will be delivered to an audience that includes the heads of the CIA, FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Department of Homeland Security, along with other Cabinet members and senior staff. Some Cabinet members will not attend due to scheduling conflicts.
Trump alleges CIA withheld China intelligence
According to sources familiar with the planned remarks, one of the central claims Trump intends to make is that Beijing obtained access to sensitive US voter registration data before the 2020 election and that the CIA knew about the intrusion but did not inform him at the time.
The allegation, if supported by declassified intelligence, would represent one of the most serious foreign election interference claims ever made by a sitting president.
The claim has some support in the public record. A heavily redacted report on the exploitation of US data by China and Russia, released in 2022, showed that in April 2020, Chinese intelligence accessed voter registration data from several US states.
Analysts concluded that Beijing sought to analyze public opinion ahead of the general election. The declassified document did not suggest that China attempted to manipulate the data or interfere with voting. It also did not explain how the data was obtained.
US intelligence ruled out China election interference
In an early 2021 assessment issued by the National Intelligence Council, the US intelligence community assessed with "high confidence" that China did not attempt to influence the outcome of the election.
The assessment concluded that Beijing viewed neither a Biden nor a Trump victory as "advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling."
Intelligence agencies also found that China did not "interfere with election infrastructure," including vote-counting.
However, the same assessment noted a minority view from the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber, who believed with moderate confidence that China did attempt to undermine Trump's reelection bid, primarily through social media and official statements, though the official agreed that Beijing did not try to interfere with election processes.
Separately, the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber found in April 2020 that Chinese intelligence "analyzed multiple US states' … election voter registration data," according to a report on Chinese and Russian exploitation of US data that was declassified in 2022 but remains heavily redacted.
The report suggested China's goal in analyzing voter registration data was to "conduct public opinion analysis on the 2020 US general election."
The Washington Post also reported that Trump's primetime speech will center on new 2020 election allegations, framing the address as a continuation of his longstanding position that forces inside and outside the US government worked against him in 2020.
Trump has long insisted that the 2020 election was stolen from him, a claim that courts, election officials, and his own Justice Department have repeatedly rejected.
The speech is also expected to touch on the SAVE Act, legislation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote that Trump has urged Congress to pass.
