Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Friday DHS experts “fully expect” for Russia to attempt to interfere in the 2020 U.S. elections.
Mr. Wolf, who has headed up the department since November, made the remark while discussing risks facing this year’s races during an event organized by the Homeland Security Experts Group in D.C.
“As we saw in 2016, we fully expect Russia to attempt to interfere in the 2020 elections to sow public discord and undermine our democratic institutions,” Mr. Wolf told attendees.
“Let me be clear: We are prepared,” Mr. Wolf added, according to his prepared remarks. “And more importantly, the state and local officials who run our elections are prepared.”
The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Russia interfered in the 2016 race won by President Trump, and the Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against several individuals alleged to have been involved.
President Trump’s administration subsequently took measures to protect the 2018 mid-term races from foreign meddling, and DHS officials have previously described that contest as the “most secure election” in American history.
Concerns about further foreign interference in the U.S. electoral process have persisted in the years since, however, with another top Trump administration official warning earlier this week about the likelihood of other adversaries following in Russia’s footsteps.
“This is not a Russia-only problem,” Shelby Pierson, the election-security threats executive for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said at an event Tuesday.
“Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, non-state hacktivists all have opportunity, means and potentially motive to come after the United States in the 2020 election to accomplish their goals,” Ms. Pierson said.
Federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies previously assessed that Russian military officers hacked into computers belonging to the Democratic Party during the 2016 presidential race and stole sensitive material later leaked online.
The Justice Department has additionally filed criminal charges against several Russians allegedly employed by the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based company accused of weaponizing social media platforms to spread politically-charged disinformation and propaganda leading up to Mr. Trump’s election.
Moscow has repeatedly denied interfering in the U.S. electoral process.
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