Confusion in the IC

For John, BLUF:  There was apparently a minority opinion in the Intelligence Community regarding outside influence in our 2020 Elections.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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US National Intelligence Officer Argues China Meddled in 2020 Election to Damage Trump

Wait!  What?  We were told, yesterday, that:

Putin targeted people close to Trump in bid to influence 2020 election, U.S. intelligence says

Washington Post Reporter Ellen Nakashima (17 March 2021, at 6:51 a.m. EDT) told us:

Evanina also said that "China prefers that President Trump — whom Beijing sees as unpredictable — does not win reelection."  He said that China was expanding its "influence efforts" ahead of the November election to "shape the policy environment" and "pressure political figures" it viewed as opposed to its interests.

So China was not directly meddling in our 2020 Election, per Ms Nakashima.

But, back to today's Epoch Times article, there is revealed a descenting opinion.

From The Epoch Times, by Reporter Jack Phhillips, 18 March 2021.

Here is the lede plus one:

A report from the U.S. intelligence community suggests that a minority of intelligence officials believed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did, in fact, attempt to hinder former President Donald Trump’s chances in the 2020 election, while reporting that the CCP did not “deploy interference efforts.”

A report from the National Intelligence Council (pdf) released March 10 stated that Russia sought to denigrate President Joe Biden and boost Trump during the 2020 election, and that China “did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the U.S. presidential election,” adding:  “We have high confidence in this judgment.”

So, which is it?  Did they or didn't they?  I am thinking our assumption, and our defensive actions should be based on the idea that they did.

We have election system problems and the Bill coming out of Congress will not fix those problems.  If anything, it will make things worse.  For sure, the confidence of the voters is important.  I do not believe we have a high level of confidence.

Regards  —  Cliff