National intelligence director said Russia is still attempting to interfere in midterm elections as agency heads stood in rare show of force Tuesday

America is under attack from “a pervasive campaign” by Russia to interfere in the midterm elections, the country’s top security officials warned on Thursday in a markedly different tone from Donald Trump’s statements and tweets.

Agency heads stood together in a rare show of force at the White House but ducked media questions about Trump’s repeated equivocations over Russian meddling in the 2016 election and his calls for the justice department’s investigation to be shut down.

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“The president has specifically directed us to make the matter of election meddling and securing our election process a top priority,” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told reporters in west wing briefing room. “And we have done that, and are doing that, and will continue to do so.”

Coats continued: “In regards to Russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States ... We also know the Russians tried to hack into and steal information from candidates and government officials alike.”

The Trump administration has faced bipartisan criticism for not doing enough to combat the threat. But the US intelligence and security agencies are making it a “top priority”, Coats said. “And we’re throwing everything at it.”

He was followed at the podium by Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, who said she shared the intelligence community’s assessment of past attacks and current threats. “Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs. Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and it has become clear that they are the target of our adversaries, who seek, as the DNI [Coats] just said, to sow discord and undermine our way of life.”



Next Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, offered examples of the hostile operations: targeting US officials and other Americans through “traditional intelligence tradecraft”, criminal efforts to suppress voting and provide illegal campaign financing, cyber-attacks against voting infrastructure along with computer intrusions targeted election officials and others.

In addition, Wray said, there have been both overt and covert attempts to manipulate news stories, spread disinformation, leverage economic resources and escalate divisive issues. “So make no mistake, the scope of this foreign influence threat is both broad and deep.”

However, when Wray was challenged over Trump’s criticisms of the FBI and dismissal of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as a “rigged witch-hunt”, he replied: “Well, I can assure the American people that the men and women of the FBI, starting from the director all the way on down, are going to follow our oaths and do our jobs.”

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Trump was branded “treasonous” in Helsinki after he appeared to side with the Kremlin over his own intelligence agencies on the issue of 2016 meddling. Pressed for details on Thursday, Coats made a surprising admission. “I’m not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened at Helsinki,” he said.

Instead he gave the floor to the national security adviser, John Bolton, who claimed: “President Putin said the first issue that President Trump raised was election meddling.” He added: “I think the president has made it abundantly clear to everybody who has responsibility in this area that he cares deeply about it.”

Later Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, tweeted: “Glad to see the White House finally do something about election security – even if it’s only a press conference. Now if only it was actually backed up by anything the President has said or done on Russia.”