Senate Democrats say they have been snubbed on election security briefings

By Erin Banco

NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) – Democrats in the U.S. Senate called on the Trump administration on Wednesday to provide regular election  security briefings ahead of the November midterm elections, claiming they’ve received only one.

• Congress normally receives election security briefings on threats to critical infrastructure or attempts by foreign adversaries to influence the outcome of the vote.

• Democratic senators said they have only received one briefing, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Requests for similar briefings from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) were ignored, lawmakers said in a letter.

• “No meaningful steps have been taken to coordinate information sharing and incident response between Executive Branch agencies or to ensure timely information dissemination to election stakeholders,” the letter said.

• The Trump administration last year cut staff from key offices at the FBI and DHS responsible for safeguarding elections.

• Democrats have raised concerns about efforts by the administration to re-investigate disproven claims that President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election.

(Reporting by Erin Banco in New York; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Mark Porter)