CIA Director Mike Pompeo disputed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “false” claim that his government didn’t interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Pompeo pushed back against Putin’s assertion that 13 Russians indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller were not connected to the Kremlin.
The remarks start at the 5:36-minute mark.
“That’s false,’ Pompeo declared. “The Russians attempted to interfere in the United States elections in 2016.”
“It was Russians who actually engaged in this, not somebody outside the country or disconnected” from the Kremlin, he added, saying, however, there was “not a single indication anything changed” because of the meddling, though he said it’s not the role of the CIA to analyze that issue.
Pompeo also dismissed Putin’s boasts in a recent speech about his nation’ fearsome new nuclear missiles.
“Vladimir Putin says lots of things that are without foundation,” he said. “I’ll say that there was literally nothing that he said in that speech that surprised the intelligence community.”