US President Donald Trump announced the declassification of intelligence information relating to what he described as "serious flaws" in the US election system.
The US president confirmed that he had ordered a broad investigation and accountability for those who concealed this information from the presidency and the public.
During a televised address to the nation, Trump said the US administration would release "highly significant" intelligence documents showing that the US election infrastructure was "unprecedentedly vulnerable to cyberattacks, abuse, and foreign interference."
The US president confirmed that he had directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to investigate the reasons for concealing this information, to hold those responsible accountable, and to bring criminal charges if necessary.
Trump said the documents to be declassified show that what he called the "deep state," including intelligence officials, worked to conceal and downplay what he considered Chinese interference in the 2020 election, and prevented this information from reaching him and the American people.
He added that during the 2020 election cycle, China was able to illegally access data on approximately 220 million American voter registration records, including their names, addresses, phone numbers, political affiliations, and other sensitive information, describing it as "the largest data breach in history."
Trump also announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had identified approximately 278,000 non-U.S. citizens registered to vote in federal elections, suggesting that the actual number could be higher due to the refusal of some Democratic-run states to share voter data.
The US president accused a number of US adversaries, including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, along with non-governmental actors, of having the ability to influence the infrastructure of US elections.
Meanwhile, the White House announced the declassification of emails that it said show that officials at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) withheld intelligence assessments in 2020 indicating Chinese attempts to influence the election in favor of then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
In a related context, the Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the American accusations, stressing that Beijing adheres to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and that the American elections are "an internal American matter to be decided by the American voter," emphasizing that China "has not interfered and will not interfere" in the American presidential elections.
