After reviewing intelligence reports a US Senate committee says that findings that Russia ramped up attempts to interfere in the US election in 2016 and helped Donald Trump win were accurate.
Today, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) released the Committee’s unclassified summary of its initial findings on the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian activities in the 2016 U.S. elections.
The Committee finds that the overall judgments issued in the ICA were well-supported and the tradecraft was strong. The course of the Committee’s investigation has shown that the Russian cyber operations were more extensive than the hack of the Democratic National Committee and continued well through the 2016 election.
Chairman Burr
“The Committee has spent the last 16 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft and analytic work underpinning the Intelligence Community Assessment and sees no reason to dispute the conclusions. The Committee continues its investigation and I am hopeful that this instalment of the Committee’s work will soon be followed by additional summaries providing the American people with clarity around Russia’s activities regarding U.S. elections.”
Vice Chairman Warner
“Our investigation thoroughly reviewed all aspects of the January 2017 ICA, which assessed that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign to target our presidential election and to destabilize our democratic institutions. As numerous intelligence and national security officials in the Trump administration have since unanimously re-affirmed, the ICA findings were accurate and on point. The Russian effort was extensive and sophisticated, and its goals were to undermine public faith in the democratic process, to hurt Secretary Clinton and to help Donald Trump. While our investigation remains ongoing, we have to learn from 2016 and do more to protect ourselves from attacks in 2018 and beyond.”
Investigations like this are for finding out what happened and try to prevent future interference.
The FBI’s and CIA’s “analytical disagreement” with the NSA over whether Russia sought to bolster the Trump presidential campaign was “reasonable,” the report also said.
While the FBI and CIA had “high confidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin aspired to help Trump’s election chances by denigrating opponent Hillary Clinton, the NSA had only “moderate confidence” in that assessment, according to the January 2017 analysis.
The disagreement among agencies “was reasonable, transparent, and openly debated among the agencies and analysts, with analysts, managers and agency heads on both sides of the confidence level articulately justifying their positions,” the Senate intelligence committee’s findings said.
This further confirms what is fairly widely accepted – that Russia meddled in the election trying to help Trump.
Trump is due to meet with Vladimir Putin next month.
Kitty Catkin
/ July 4, 2018Has Trump ever explained how he met Putin, became a friend and appeared on television with him when Putin was out of the country at the time ?
MaureenW
/ July 4, 2018Same day, another charge thrown out that Trump colluded with Russia to hack/publish the DNC emails.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/03/trump-dnc-hacking-693965
Pete George
/ July 4, 2018The ruling was wrong jurisdiction, not that there was no collusion.
Emphasised “this Court’s ruling is not based on a finding that there was no collusion”.
MaureenW
/ July 4, 2018Stand corrected, fair comment
PDB
/ July 4, 2018You mean to say the Russians planted Hillary as Trump’s opponent as she was the only presidential candidate capable of losing to him?
MaureenW
/ July 4, 2018Yes, you’d have to wonder why Russia would want Trump. After all Bill and Hillary were well ensconced with Uranium 1 and Clinton Foundation/speaking fees for Bill. Obama was aware of Russian meddling but gave a stand down order to those supposedly investigating.
Trevors_elbow
/ July 4, 2018Bahahaha…
And where is the collusion evidence?
Russia influence on western elections is ongoing and of long standing occurence…
So when will we see the collusion evidence
Gezza
/ July 5, 2018Must be patient. Professional cop on the job.
Pete George
/ July 5, 2018More Russia probe developments:
Strzok Subpoenaed to Testify in Open Setting Before Congress
Peter Strzok, the FBI counterintelligence agent who said “we’ll stop” then-candidate Donald Trump from becoming president, has been subpoenaed to openly testify before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees on July 10 — after his lawyer recently said the date would not work.
Strzok Lawyer Accuses Republicans of Mischaracterizing His Testimony
FBI agent Peter Strzok’s lawyer is accusing Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee of selectively leaking portions of his private testimony last week. Aitan Goelman made the allegation in a letter sent to the committee on Monday, according to CNN. Goelman also alleges that the invitation for Strzok to return next week for a public testimony was a “trap.”
Cohen Hints at Cooperating With Federal Investigators. Or Does He?
NOEL
/ July 5, 2018I’m fascinated by the focus on the differences in assesment by NAS v FBI/CIA.
NAS is restricted to Sigint only. No surprises there.
MaureenW
/ July 5, 2018There are many interesting threads to this tale – here is one where Comey shuts down an opportunity to provide Julian Assange with an immunity deal. The same Julian Assange who published the Clinton/Podesta emails and has not been interviewed by the Special Counsel as to where he obtained them from. Assange has always claimed not Russia nor russian operatives.
http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/394036-How-Comey-intervened-to-kill-Wikileaks-immunity-deal
Patzcuaro
/ July 5, 2018