Russian hackers attempting to meddle in US mid-term elections, says CIA chief

 CIA Director Mike Pompeo
 CIA Director Mike Pompeo Credit:  Andrew Harrer

Russian hackers are attempting to interfere in the upcoming US mid-term elections, the head of the CIA has warned.

Mike Pompeo, the director of the intelligence service, listed Russian cyber activity among his primary concerns as he warned that the Kremlin was continuing its attempts to subvert the political environment within Europe as well as the US.

The US Department of Justice is currently investigating the possibility of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, something the Russian government has fiercely denied.

But on Monday night Mr Pompeo said he feared the tactics remained a threat ahead of November's elections, saying “I haven’t seen a significant decrease in their activity”.

The mid-term elections are a key test for President Donald Trump's administration and may threaten the Republican Party's razor-thin majority in the Senate.

“I have every expectation that they will continue to try and do that," Mr Pompeo told the BBC's News At Ten.

"But I’m confident that America will be able to have a free and fair election (and) that we will push back in a way that is sufficiently robust that the impact they have on our election won’t be great.”

Russia's President Vladimir Putin 
Russia's President Vladimir Putin  Credit: Mikhail Metzel 

In turn, the state accused the US of meddling in its own elections ahead of  an expected US Treasury "name and shame" report on President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.  

During the wide-ranging interview, Mr Pompeo also revealed that the CIA believes that North Korea will have developed a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the US in a matter months.

He said that his agency has given Mr Trump “a set of options that continue to take down that risk by non-diplomatic means”.

However, he said that the president was “mindful” of the consequences of a military conflict with the North Korean regime, hinting that the US could deploy other tactics to remove the state's leader, Kim Jong-Un, or prevent him from launching nuclear missiles.

Mr Pompeo also dismissed questions around Mr Trump's intellectual capability which were sparked by a new political book, Fire and Fury, detailing life within the White House. 

“It’s absurd," he said. "I haven’t read the book. I don’t intend to”. 

“The claim that the president isn’t engaged and doesn’t have a grasp on these important issues is dangerous and false and it saddens me that someone would have taken the time to write such drivel.”

On Monday it also emerged that Andrew McCabe, the FBI deputy director who has had a number of public run-ins with Mr Trump, was stepping down. 

Mr McCabe, who took up job in early 2016, will formally leave the FBI in mid-March when he becomes eligible for full retirement benefits. 

Mr Trump has effectively accused him of political bias in the past because Mr McCabe’s wife ran for a Virginia state senate seat as a Democrat.  

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