DHS secretary says she's unaware Russia wanted Trump to win
By JILL COLVIN and COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press
May 22, 2018 10:25 AM CDT
From left, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, attend a meeting with President Donald Trump and a group of governors in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, May 21, 2018, to discuss border security and restoring...   (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday she was unaware of intelligence assessments concluding that Russia favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

The U.S. intelligence community said in a January 2017 assessment that Russia had tried to influence the election to benefit Trump.

"I do not believe I've seen that conclusion that the specific intent was to help President Trump win. I'm not aware of that," Nielsen told reporters after briefing members of the House on election security efforts.

Homeland Security is the agency that oversees election security.

The Senate intelligence committee said last week that it agrees with the intelligence agencies' assessment. That was at odds with Republican members of the House intelligence committee, who said that while Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to hamper Clinton's campaign, that didn't mean he wanted to help Trump.

The House committee said the intelligence agencies failed to use "proper analytic tradecraft" when they assessed Putin's intentions.