New Delhi, July 17 -- 9 p.m. Thursday, the East Room, the heads of the CIA, FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Department of Homeland Security in attendance. What it would not confirm, even hours before the broadcast, was precisely what the president intended to say.

According to sources familiar with the speech's preparation, Trump plans to allege that Beijing compromised U.S. voter registration data ahead of the 2020 presidential election and that the CIA possessed evidence of the breach but withheld it from him during his first term. CBS News reported Tuesday that the claims form the centerpiece of an address that senior administration officials had been previewing to congressional allies for days.

The inte...