Ex-Intel Chief: 'I Wish We Had Taken More Action' Against Russian Meddling
In August 2016, during the run-up to the last presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials began briefing congressional leaders on what they described as unprecedented Russian interference efforts.
The Russians had a history of meddling, but this time was different, Mike Rogers, then the director of the National Security Agency, told All Things Considered co-host Mary Louise Kelly.
"What was different was, number one, the scale of the effort. Number two, the breadth of the effort. It wasn't just cyber [attacks] and penetrating networks. It was this aggressive disinformation campaign," Rogers said. Russia President "Vladimir Putin himself directed this activity and we watched the subordinate elements in the Russian government then executing this strategy that he had approved."
Most other senior intelligence
