(Washington) The Biden administration on Friday appointed a senior CIA officer to coordinate the intelligence community in the face of threats to the integrity of the electoral process from Russia, China and other adversaries.
Posted at 10:20 p.m.
Jeffrey Wichman has been named Director of Election Threats by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, said Nicole de Haay, a spokeswoman for Ms.me Hates. Mr. Wichman served in the CIA for more than 30 years, including in major counterintelligence and cybersecurity roles. His appointment was first announced by the New York Times.
His appointment comes as efforts to create a new intelligence center to prevent foreign interference in American democracy have stalled. While experts and intelligence officials say the Malicious Foreign Influence Center project is needed, its creation is stalled due to disagreements over its size and budget.
Director of Election Threats is responsible for coordinating all election security efforts within an 18-member intelligence community, which includes agencies that detect and prevent cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns and attempts to influence politicians and debates.
Previous director Shelby Pierson has been in the spotlight after giving a closed-door briefing to lawmakers on Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2020 election in favor of former President Donald Trump. This angered Mr Trump, who berated the then Director of National Intelligence and then replaced him. Mr. Pierson has since held another position in intelligence.