The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday defended its move to withhold distribution of an intelligence report that said Russia was trying to portray Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as mentally unstable. 

Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told Fox News that the department held up the report as it lacked the necessary context and was "very poorly written."

He also said he other career DHS officials had raised questions related to the report, adding that it would be rewritten. 

"I'm going to continue to do my job [and] make sure that the information coming out of the department is first-rate," Wolf said.

Earlier, US-based ABC News reported that a draft of the report, titled "Russia Likely to Denigrate Health of US Candidates to Influence 2020 Election," was sent to the agency's legislative and public affairs office on July 7.  

The draft said that Russian state media RT, Sputnik, and a Russian proxy website published reports on "the poor mental health of 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden." between September 2019 and May 2020. 

It also said that  Iranian and Chinese media had pushed out content that questions the mental health of President Donald Trump.

Source: Reuters