Former DHS official says he was told to stop reporting intel on Russian attacks against US because it 'made President [Trump] look bad'

A former senior official at the Department of Homeland Security has filed a whistleblower complaint, in which he claims he was told to stop providing intelligence analysis reports about ongoing Russian interference attacks on America because it "made the President look bad."

The official, Brian Murphy, said he believed the instruction he received from acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf would jeopardize national security.

Murphy was in charge of intelligence and analysis at DHS until recently.

In a whistleblower complaint, he said on two occasions he was told to stand down on reporting about the Russian threat, report Shane Harris and Nick Miroff at the Washington Post:

On July 8, Murphy said that acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told him that an "intelligence notification" regarding Russian disinformation efforts should be "held" because it was unflattering to Trump, who has long derided Russian interference as a "hoax" that was concocted by his opponents to delegitimize his victory in 2016.

It's not clear who would have seen the notification, but DHS's intelligence reports are routinely shared with the FBI, other federal law enforcement agencies and state and local governments.

Murphy objected to Wolf's instruction, "stating that it was improper to hold a vetted intelligence product for reasons [of] political embarrassment," according to a copy of his whistleblower complaint that was obtained by The Washington Post.

More at the Washington Post: Senior DHS official alleges in whistleblower complaint that he was told to stop providing intelligence analysis on threat of Russian interference