The FBI has been trying to prevent Russian attacks on the 2018 midterm elections. FBI Director Christopher Wray was appointed by Donald Trump. It seems, he set up a task force as the best way he could prevent any Russian attacks, but a new personnel change moved the progress backward at a very bad time.
Senior FBI official Jeffrey Tricoli has retired as the head of Wray’s government task force, according to The Wall Street Journal. Wray implemented the foreign influence task force in an attempt to “get ahead” of Russia attacking the U.S.’s 2018 midterm elections:
‘Needless to say, I take any effort to interfere with our election system by Russia or any other nation state or any non-nation state extremely seriously because it strikes right at the heart of who we are as a country. We’re focused very much forward-looking at the next couple of election cycles.’
This task force has been responsible for coordinating all of the FBI, state, federal, and private organizations efforts regarding the Russian attacks. Yet, for some reason, the task force has not made much progress.
Tricoli announced he was leaving days after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence official for allegedly conspiring to throw the 2016 presidential election to Trump. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin directed these officials who hacked the U.S. computer systems.
With Tricoli leaving, questions arose about how the U.S. government intended to deal with Russia’s attack on America. This will be a problem, because the 2018 midterms are a mere four months away.
A congressional intelligence panel staffer said there was not “a lot of substance:”
‘So far there has not been a lot of substance yet from the task force.’
Tricoli was with the FBI for 18 years. Apparently, he has taken a job with the Charles Schwab Corporation. He did not answer the Wall Street Journal’s questions.
