Trump accuses 'deep state' intelligence officials of hiding China meddling, orders DOJ prosecutions

In the primetime address, President Trump said the second set of declassified documents revealed that 'members of the deep state' in intelligence agencies worked to 'actively suppress and downplay' information about China's election meddling, asserting they hid it from him as president and from Congress. He ordered the Justice Department to prosecute those believed to be involved and, per ABC News, called on FBI Director Kash Patel to ensure the matter is fully investigated and to work with DOJ to prosecute those responsible for any crimes. Fact-checkers noted the record contradicts the cover-up claim: the intelligence community delivered its classified assessment to officials on January 7, 2021 and publicly released a declassified version in March 2021, which stated China 'considered — but did not deploy' influence efforts. Election-law expert David Becker said the idea the China voter-data issue 'was somehow covered up is relatively laughable,' and task-force member John Solomon acknowledged after the speech that the intelligence shows 'zero evidence' a foreign power flipped any vote.

“The second set of documents we are releasing reveals that members of the deep state, very, very famous group of people, in many cases, in our intelligence agency, work to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China's sinister election meddling.” Quote verified against source