‘Absolutely Chilling’: Sen. Richard Blumenthal Calls for Intel Reports on Russian Election Interference to Be Declassified
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) raised red flags over recent classified intelligence reports that strongly suggest high-level Russian officials — including Russian President Vladimir Putin — are actively interfering in the 2020 election, calling the assessment “absolutely chilling.”
The Connecticut senator was responding to an FBI warning today about election disinformation. The PSA warns that “foreign actors and cybercriminals could exploit the time required to certify and announce elections’ results by disseminating disinformation that includes reports of voter suppression, cyberattacks targeting election infrastructure, voter or ballot fraud, and other problems intended to convince the public of the elections’ illegitimacy.”
Additionally, a new Washington Post report says a CIA analysis that said Putin and the Kremlin was “probably directing” a Ukrainian official named Andrii Derkach. According to the spy agency, Derkach has been a cat’s paw for the Russians, pushing disinformation about Joe Biden to unnamed Republican members of Congress as well as the Trump campaign via Rudy Giuliani.
“I’ve seen these classified reports,” Blumenthal said to CNN host Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. “Let me just say, bluntly, these reports of foreign interference in our election are absolutely chilling. They should be declassified. The American people deserve to see them. They need to understand the magnitude of this attack on our democracy.”
“It makes the 2016 interference looks like child’s play,” Blumenthal added, alluding to the election meddling by Russia on behalf of the Trump campaign four years ago, which was confirmed by an exhaustive Senate Intelligence Committee report this past summer.
“The American people need to see what I’ve seen. I am barred from talking publicly about the details because I’m sworn to secrecy,” Blumenthal explained. “But Putin is intent on sewing discord and division in the United States. It’s an attack on our democracy. And unfortunately, Donald Trump has failed to stand up to it.”
Watch the video above, via CNN.
