The announcement from Donald Trump’s national security adviser that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election to help elect Bernie Sanders was not based on any evidence, but instead out of a desire to please Trump, a security official claims.

This week, on the eve of the Nevada caucus, a report emerged that National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said that Russia was undertaking efforts to interfere in the upcoming election, as it had done in 2016. While the previous interference reportedly focused on helping Trump win, O’Brien had claimed that the Vermont senator was now the beneficiary of Vladimir Putin’s meddling.

O’Brien said in an interview that it made sense for Russia to want to help Sanders, painting the Democratic front-runner as sympathetic to the former Soviet Union.

“Well, there are these reports that they want Bernie Sanders to get elected president,” O’Brien said, via Mediaite. “That’s no surprise. He honeymooned in Moscow. President Trump has rebuilt the American military to an extent we haven’t seen since Ronald Reagan. So, I don’t think it’s any surprise that Russia or China or Iran would want somebody other than President Trump.”

O’Brien also pushed back against reports that House lawmakers were briefed by intelligence officials that Russia was again trying to meddle in the election with the hopes of helping Trump to be re-elected, not to help Sanders.

The statement is now coming under fire. In a thread posted to Twitter, CNN’s Jake Tapper cited a national security official who said there is no evidence that Russia wants Sanders to win the 2020 presidential election. The official said that O’Brien’s statement was meant only to please Trump, and nothing more.

The official said that the willingness of the national security adviser to inject himself into politics was a worrying development.

“By saying that, O’Brien injected himself into the campaign by commenting on a potential rival,” Tapper quoted the official. “If he’s willing to say that as national security adviser, what does that mean for the next nine months? And what is he doing when the camera’s not on him?”

National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien politicizes intelligence on ABC: "There are these reports that [Russia] wants Bernie Sanders to get elected. But that's no surprise. He honeymooned in Moscow... I haven't seen any intel that Russia is doing anything to get Trump reelected" pic.twitter.com/NPcxyrZkFV — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 23, 2020

Tapper also cited the official as saying that Russia is undertaking a campaign to interfere in the upcoming election, but that there is no preference right now between Trump and Sanders. The final report on Russia election interference found that the campaign was meant to sow discord, and that Russians often pushed both sides of hot-button issues, including the Black Lives Matter movement.