WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, of leaking information about Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2020 election, said the intelligence was "exaggerated" and did not acknowledge that Moscow was behind similar efforts in 2016.
The president made the comments during a news conference at the end of his two-day visit in India.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is seeking the Democrat nomination for president, has confirmed that U.S. officials told him last month about Russian efforts to boost his chances to challenge Trump in November.
"Bernie is probably winning -- looks like he's winning and he's got a head of steam," Trump told reporters. "And they maybe don't want him for obvious reasons. ... So they put out a thing that Russia is backing him."
Trump said he thought it was "strange" that U.S. officials told Sanders but nobody told him.
"It's highly exaggerated. I think it's disgraceful. I think it was leaks from the intel committee," Trump said. "I think probably Schiff leaked it. He shouldn't be leaking things like that."
"And if they don't stop it, I can't imagine that people are not going to go after them and find out what's happening," Trump said, accusing the House Intelligence Committee of being a source of improper leaks.
It wasn't the first time that Trump levied the accusation against Schiff. He earlier tweeted that election security officials "supposedly told Crazy Bernie [Sanders] that Russia was looking at him, not me. This is all a big scam between Intel and the Democrats. They want Bernie OUT & hate 'Trump.'"
"Nice deflection, Mr. President. But your false claims fool no one," Schiff tweeted over the weekend. "You welcomed Russian help in 2016, tried to coerce Ukraine's help in 2019, and won't protect our elections in 2020."
Intelligence officials had briefed members of the intelligence committee earlier this month about the persistence of Russia's efforts to help Trump get reelected in 2020, including new information about the Kremlin's efforts to influence the Democratic primaries to aid Sanders of Vermont.
People familiar with the classified briefing said election security officials indicated that the Kremlin was looking to help Trump win reelection. But a senior official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Monday that Shelby Pierson, a top election security official who was one of the officials who briefed the committee, did not tell lawmakers that Russia is aiding Trump's reelection. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive information.
"I want no help from any country, and I haven't been given help from any country," Trump told reporters.
Trump was asked whether former acting National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire was forced out as part of an effort to purge administration officials seen as being disloyal to Trump. "I don't think it's a big problem," he said. "I don't think it's very many people."
The president said Maguire was not forced out. He said Maguire's tenure as acting director was to end on March 11 and called Maguire an "excellent guy."
A few days later, Trump named Richard Grenell to be director of national intelligence to oversee the nation's 17 intelligence agencies until a permanent replacement could be found. Most recently, Grenell was the U.S. ambassador to Germany.
A nearly two-year investigation led by former special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that there was a sophisticated, Kremlin-led operation to sow division in the U.S. and upend the 2016 election by using cyberattacks and social media as weapons.
Election security experts say it's clear that Russia is again trying to influence the U.S. election, including through the spread of misinformation to raise skepticism about the U.S. electoral process.
But top U.S. officials, including Trump's national security adviser Robert O'Brien, have said they have not seen any intelligence or analyses indicating that Russia has been specifically aiding Trump's reelection.
In 2016, Russia's meddling "evolved from a generalized program designed in 2014 and 2015 to undermine the U.S. electoral system, to a targeted operation that by early 2016 favored candidate Trump and disparaged candidate [Hillary] Clinton," according to the Mueller report.
As Tuesday's news conference began, Trump had pledged not to say anything that could cause controversy.
"I'm going to be not at all controversial, because I don't want to blow the two days plus two days of travel on one answer -- one little answer," Trump told reporters before he took questions.
The news media, he said, would take something small and "blow it out, and that would be the end of the trip. They won't even talk about the trip."
Information for this article was contributed by Eileen Sullivan of The New York Times and by Jonathan Lemire and Deb Riechmann of The Associated Press.
A Section on 02/26/2020