Shelby Pierson is the top

election security Election cybersecurity or election security refers to the protection of elections and voting infrastructure from cyberattack or cyber threat – including the tampering with or infiltration of voting machines and equipment, election office netwo ...

official of the American intelligence community, the chair of the Election Executive and Leadership Board. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats instituted the position and appointed Pierson to fill it in July 2019. The board includes representatives from the intelligence community and other federal agencies coordinating on election security.

Intelligence career

Pierson was crisis manager for election security during the

2018 midterm elections The 2018 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. These midterm elections occurred during Republican Donald Trump's term. Democrats made a net gain of 41 seats in the United States House of Representatives, gaining a majo ...

. She has more than 20 years of intelligence experience, including as national intelligence manager for Russia, Europe and Eurasia, and roles at the

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of natio ...

2020 election security coordinator

Pierson told NPR in January 2020 that election interference "isn't a Russia-only problem" and that "we're still also concerned about China,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, non-state actors, 'hacktivists.' And frankly ... even Americans might be looking to undermine confidence in the elections." She said the Russians "are already engaging in influence operations" but "we do not have evidence at this time that our adversaries are directly looking at interfering with vote counts." To deter election interference, "it's important for us to keep messaging our adversaries that this activity will not be tolerated and there will be consequences," she told NBC News.

Russian interference warning

Pierson told the

House Intelligence Committee The United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), also known as the House Intelligence Committee, is a committee of the United States House of Representatives, currently chaired by Adam Schiff. It is the primary committ ...

on February 13, 2020, that

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

is working to help get

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

re-elected''.'' Later, three other national security officials told CNN that this statement omitted important nuance, and that while Russia was working to interfere with the election, there was not evidence the interference was aimed at re-electing Trump. The day afterward, Trump berated her supervisor, acting director of national intelligence

Joseph Maguire Joseph Maguire (born August 14, 1951) is an American officer who served as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and Acting Director of National Intelligence under President Donald Trump. He retired from the United States Navy as a ...

, for allowing the briefing. Trump worried that Democrats might "weaponize" the information against him. On February 19, 2020, Trump replaced Maguire with

Richard Grenell Richard Allen Grenell (born September 18, 1966) is an American political operative, diplomat, TV personality, and public relations consultant who served as Acting Director of National Intelligence in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet in 2020. ...

, considered a Trump loyalist, as acting director of national intelligence, effective immediately.

References

Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People of the United States intelligence agencies {{US-gov-bio-stub

Intelligence career

2020 election security coordinator

Russian interference warning

See also

References