Loading story…
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard defended the decision to exclude foreign threats to U.S. elections from the latest annual threat assessment, marking the first time since 2017 that election interference was not addressed in the public report. During Senate Intelligence Committee questioning, Sen. Mark Warner challenged the omission and warned that the absence of language on election interference does not mean the threat has disappeared, particularly with midterm elections approaching and prior assessments having cited activity by Iran, Russia, and China to influence U.S. voters through propaganda and cyber operations.
The controversy unfolded alongside broader concerns that the administration is deprioritizing election security, including reported cuts affecting CISA and the lack of leadership for the Foreign Malign Influence Center. Lawmakers also pressed Gabbard over her presence during an FBI search of a Georgia election office tied to long-running 2020 election-fraud claims; she said she did not participate in the law enforcement search itself. The dispute highlights growing tension between intelligence officials and congressional Democrats over whether the U.S. government is continuing to publicly acknowledge and prepare for foreign election interference risks.
See the actors and campaigns active against you right now.
7 events from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
By the time of the hearing, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent had departed his post. According to Nextgov, he reportedly disagreed with the administration’s premise for the Iran war.
At the hearing, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the U.S. operation had significantly damaged Iran’s nuclear capabilities and slowed uranium enrichment. He also warned that Iran was seeking intelligence assistance from Russia, China, and other U.S. adversaries.
During the same hearing, Gabbard answered questions about being present during an FBI search of a Georgia election office tied to 2020 election records and fraud claims. She said she was there only to observe at the president’s request and did not participate in law enforcement activity.
Lawmakers and observers highlighted broader concerns during the hearing that the administration was downplaying election security risks, citing cuts affecting CISA and the lack of a confirmed leader for the Foreign Malign Influence Center. These issues were presented as weakening the federal posture against foreign election interference.
At a Senate Intelligence Committee global threats hearing, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard defended the omission of election-related threats from the assessment. Senators Mark Warner and John Ossoff criticized the decision and warned that threats from countries such as Iran, Russia, and China had not disappeared.
The latest U.S. annual intelligence threat assessment was released without references to foreign threats to American elections, the first such omission in nearly a decade. The change prompted concern that election interference was being deprioritized in a midterm election year.
The Trump administration began a war with Iran, which later became a point of contention in intelligence oversight hearings. Nextgov says the war began on 2026-02-28.
See the adversaries and campaigns active against your sector right now, ranked by what they're exploiting.
2 references tracked. Mallory keeps watching after this page renders.
nextgov.com
Open sourcetherecord.media
Open sourceMap indicators from this story to your assets and identify affected systems in minutes.
Every observed campaign, victim, and pivot linked to actors named in this story.
Malware, exploits, and IOCs connected to the activity described here.
YARA, Sigma, and Snort rules deployed to your SIEM as soon as they’re published.
Get matching new stories delivered to your team as they break — not the next morning.
Ask questions about this story and take action on the answers.
Other stories Mallory is tracking that overlap on entities, sources, or topic labels.
Senior US officials and lawmakers are escalating oversight and policy debates around **surveillance authorities and intelligence handling**. The White House confirmed it will convene a high-level meeting with senior national security leaders and key members of Congress to discuss reauthorizing **FISA Section 702**, which is set to lapse without congressional action; the authority enables warrantless targeting of foreigners’ communications but can incidentally collect Americans’ communications, fueling renewed civil-liberties and warrant-requirement disputes. Separately, Director of National Intelligence **Tulsi Gabbard** is facing scrutiny on multiple fronts, including a **whistleblower complaint** alleging unusual restrictions on dissemination of highly classified NSA-derived intelligence and claims she directed the NSA not to publish a report and instead route details to her office; Gabbard’s office denies wrongdoing and says her actions were lawful, while the underlying complaint remains highly classified. Parallel oversight pressure is also building around **domestic-facing security and data practices**. The DHS Office of Inspector General launched an audit into how DHS components—initially focusing on **ICE** and the **Office of Biometric Identity Management**—collect, manage, share, and secure **PII and biometric data** used in immigration enforcement, following lawmakers’ concerns about facial recognition and license-plate data collection. In a separate but related governance controversy, Gabbard’s expanded involvement in **election security**—including participation around an FBI raid of a local elections office and actions involving voting systems that her team said had cybersecurity vulnerabilities—has raised questions about mandate boundaries between foreign-interference missions and domestic election administration. In contrast, the CIA’s announcement of a new acquisition framework to speed technology adoption is primarily an internal modernization/procurement change and does not materially advance the surveillance/oversight storyline beyond general national-security context.
Jun 29, 2026
Jay Clayton’s confirmation hearing to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was dominated by sharp questioning over election security, foreign influence, and his refusal to state plainly that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. Democratic senators including Mark Warner, Angus King, Mark Kelly, Ron Wyden, and Jon Ossoff challenged Clayton on prior remarks about mail-in ballots, alleged voter fraud risks, and whether the intelligence community could be drawn into renewed efforts to revisit the 2020 result. Clayton responded that the DNI has substantial statutory authority to address foreign intelligence threats to U.S. elections and said any public comments he makes, if confirmed, would be based on timely, objective intelligence. The hearing also raised broader cyber and intelligence concerns, including whether ODNI should restore cyber and foreign influence functions reduced under Tulsi Gabbard, the lapse in Section 702 surveillance authorities, and the agency’s role in information sharing on cyber threats. Clayton pointed to his SEC experience, said he would evaluate whether more ODNI resources should be devoted to cybersecurity, and indicated he wants to understand how to minimize national security impacts from the Section 702 lapse. Senators additionally pressed him over subpoenas issued to journalists in a leak investigation tied to security concerns surrounding a Qatari-gifted aircraft intended to replace Air Force One, while Republicans signaled support for his nomination.
Jul 15, 2026
US Cyber Command and the NSA have repeatedly used covert cyber operations to blunt foreign election interference, including ejecting Iranian hackers from a municipal website used to post unofficial 2020 results before false information could be spread and disrupting Russian influence operators targeting voters ahead of the 2024 election. Officials said the 2020 intrusion did not affect voting, ballot tabulation, or certified results, and described the broader mission as a joint effort with CISA, the FBI, DHS, and other agencies to counter cyberattacks, troll farms, fake websites, and AI-enabled propaganda tied to Russia, Iran, China, North Korea, and non-state actors. At the same time, the US government has reduced parts of the election security apparatus built after 2016. Reporting says the Trump administration put CISA election security staff who worked with states on leave and dismantled or downsized programs across ODNI, the FBI, the State Department, and CISA that tracked and exposed foreign influence campaigns. Current and former officials warned that the cuts weaken coordination with state and local election officials, reduce visibility into ongoing threats, and leave the country less prepared for future elections even as harassment of election workers and concern over the safety of cyber personnel have pushed agencies to keep some leadership roles out of public view.
Jun 29, 2026