Trump adviser asserts seeing no intel of Russia meddling

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump's national security advisor said Sunday he had seen no intelligence that Russia was again meddling in the US elections in favor of his boss.

The assertions by National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien followed this week´s ouster of the acting director of national intelligence after an aide had warned Congress of the meddling.

"I haven't seen any intelligence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump re-elected," O'Brien said on ABC's "This Week," dismissing the reports as a "non-story." Shelby Pierson, an aide to acting intelligence chief Joseph Maguire, reportedly told members of the House Intelligence Committee in a classified briefing February 13 that Russia was again meddling in the US elections and had developed a preference for Trump.

O´Brien said he had not spoken with Pierson but said he had been briefed by Maguire and CIA chief Gina Haspel "and I have not heard that analysis or seen any intel along those lines."

"Who knows what happened at the House and the intelligence committee, but I haven´t seen any evidence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump re-elected, and our message to the Russians is stay out of the US elections," O´Brien said.

Trump, after learning of the House briefing, is reported to have dressed down Maguire in a tense Oval Office meeting. On Wednesday, he replaced him with Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist who is ambassador to Germany.

Maguire had been considered the favorite to be nominated to the post on a permanent basis. But O´Brien insisted that Maguire was replaced because his term as acting director of national intelligence was up on March 11.