U.S. intelligence assesses that Chinese govt surveillance balloons have transited the continental United States a number of occasions however went “undetected,” a senior management professional instructed Fox News Digital.
A protection professional on Saturday mentioned Chinese undercover agent balloons in brief traveled over the United States a minimum of thrice all through the Trump management.
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Former President Trump and various his best nationwide safety and protection officers refuted Biden management officers’ claims that Chinese surveillance balloons in brief transited the continental United States all through the Trump management, telling Fox News Digital that it “never happened.”
But on Sunday, a senior management professional instructed Fox News Digital that “U.S. intelligence, not the Biden administration” assesses that “PRC government surveillance balloons transited the continental U.S. briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time.”
“They went undetected,” the professional instructed Fox News Digital.
The professional mentioned that is “part of a larger pattern.”
“These balloons are all part of a PRC fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries,” the professional defined, including that those actions are “often undertaken at the direction of the People’s Liberation Army.”
The professional mentioned that over the last a number of years, Chinese balloons had been noticed
over international locations throughout 5 continents, together with in East Asia, South Asia, and Europe.
“Two things can be true at once: this happened and it wasn’t detected,” the professional instructed Fox News Digital.
U.S. officers instructed Fox News on Sunday {that a} Chinese undercover agent balloon crashed into the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii 4 months in the past. Those officers mentioned that a minimum of one Chinese undercover agent balloon flew over parts of Texas and Florida all through the Trump management.
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But Trump and his best nationwide safety and protection officers instructed Fox News Digital they had been by no means briefed on one thing like that going down, stressing that it didn’t happen, and announcing the Biden management is spreading disinformation.
“This never happened. It would have never happened,” Trump instructed Fox News Digital on Sunday morning, including that Beijing “respected us greatly” below his management.
“It never happened with us under the Trump administration and if it did, we would have shot it down immediately,” Trump mentioned. “It’s disinformation.”
Trump mentioned the Biden management is spreading this as a result of “they look so bad, as usual.”
“They are incompetent,” he mentioned.
Former Trump White House nationwide safety adviser John Bolton instructed Fox News Digital that he by no means heard of anything else like this below his tenure.
“I don’t know of any balloon flights by any power over the United States during my tenure, and I’d never heard of any of that occurring before I joined in 2018,” Bolton mentioned. “I haven’t heard of anything that occurred after I left either.”
Bolton mentioned that if the Biden management has “specific examples, they need to tell Congress.”
He added: “I can say with 100% certainty not during my tenure.”
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Robert O’Brien, wh served as White House nationwide safety adviser from 2019 to 2021, instructed Fox News Digital that he had no wisdom of anything else like this going on.
“Unequivocally, I have never been briefed on the issue,” O’Brien mentioned, telling Fox News Digital that his staff, which integrated Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy nationwide safety adviser, and Allison Hooker, who served as senior adviser to Asia, additionally weren’t briefed on those actions.
Former performing Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, who led the intelligence neighborhood on the onset of COVID, instructed Fox News Digital that he did “one of the biggest intelligence deep dives on China, their spying and the origins of COVID” all through his tenure.
“It never came up,” he mentioned. “If a balloon had come up, we would have known. Someone in the intelligence community would have known, and it would have bubbled up to me to brief the president.”
And former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who lead ODNI after Grenell and in the course of the finish of the Trump management, additionally refuted the declare.
“It’s not true. I can refute it,” Ratcliffe mentioned on “Sunday Morning Futures.” “The American people can refute it for themselves. Do you remember during the Trump administration, when photographers on the ground and commercial airline pilots were talking about a spy balloon over the United States that people could look up and see, even with the naked eye, and that a media that hated Donald Trump wasn’t reporting?”
He added: “I don’t remember that either, because it didn’t happen.”
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia Heino Klinck instructed Fox News Digital that he additionally was once unaware.
“I can’t rule out that things occurred that I was unaware of, but I do think something like this, I would have been aware of,” Klinck mentioned.
Former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper additionally mentioned he was once by no means instructed about Chinese surveillance balloons above the United States all through his time on the Pentagon.
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“I don’t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States,” Esper mentioned all through an look on CNN. “I would remember that for sure.”
And former performing Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who had prior to now served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, additionally instructed Fox News he by no means had heard of a Chinese undercover agent balloon whilst he was once in govt.”
“Never heard a whisper and I have to think if anything like that happened that would have been a huge issue,” Miller instructed Fox News Digital. “No. Absolutely never heard of anything like that while I was in government or at the Pentagon.”
It is unclear, at this level, if those actions did happen, and if it was once army management that selected to not temporary civilian management at the subject.
Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this document.