The intelligence community appeared keen on downplaying Chinese election interference when it meant helping Biden.
In a New York Times magazine interview published on June 1, 2020, then-Attorney General Bill Barr acknowledged that the Department of Justice was concerned that "there are a number of foreign countries that could easily make counterfeit ballots, put names on them, send them in."
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FBI Director Kash Patel announced Monday that the bureau located intelligence reports from August 2020 that detail "alarming allegations" regarding an apparent Chinese communist plot to interfere in the presidential election for the benefit of then-candidate Joe Biden.
Nearly as damning as the allegations was their alleged cover-up by elements of the intelligence community ahead of the election.
Patel told Just the News that the newly declassified documents "include allegations of plans from the [Chinese Communist Party] to manufacture fake driver's licenses and ship them into the United States for the purpose of facilitating fraudulent mail-in ballots — allegations which, while substantiated, were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public."
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The goal was apparently to help Biden beat Trump.
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The intelligence community's then-analytic ombudsman Barry Zulauf indicated in a report on a number of election security intelligence issues that "China analysts appeared hesitant to assess Chinese actions as undue influence or interference. These analysts appeared reluctant to have their analysis on China brought forward because they tended to disagree with the [Trump] Administration's policies, saying in effect, 'I don't want our intelligence used to support those policies.'"
Jun 18, 2025 03:25 PM
Jun 18, 2025 06:02 PM
Evidence of the intelligence community suppressing it back then (due to partisanship) might undermine part of the reason the establishment dismissed such in 2020:
"[Barr] also suggested that China poses more of a threat to election security than Russia, even though that was not the conclusion of an official intelligence assessment last month. [...] Barr’s assessment does not line up with last month’s formal statement from the government’s counterintelligence chief, William Evanina." --AP FACT CHECK: Barr raises voter fraud specter, China threat
But the mainstream will just paper over the current revival of it as being the result of Trump's biased FBI appointees dredging up bygone fodder that is still "insufficient" and paranoid on yata-yata grounds. Like proving that the Chinese plans were literally carried out, that they did successfully deliver a major impact, etc.
"[Barr] also suggested that China poses more of a threat to election security than Russia, even though that was not the conclusion of an official intelligence assessment last month. [...] Barr’s assessment does not line up with last month’s formal statement from the government’s counterintelligence chief, William Evanina." --AP FACT CHECK: Barr raises voter fraud specter, China threat
But the mainstream will just paper over the current revival of it as being the result of Trump's biased FBI appointees dredging up bygone fodder that is still "insufficient" and paranoid on yata-yata grounds. Like proving that the Chinese plans were literally carried out, that they did successfully deliver a major impact, etc.