Senate Intel Report on 2016 Meddling Backs Up Intel Community Findings: Russia Had Preference for Trump
The Senate Intelligence Committee has a report out today backing up the conclusions of the intel community assessment (ICA) on Russian meddling and the Russians’ preference for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
The report [PDF] from Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chair Mark Warner finds the ICA to be “a sound intelligence product.”
In fact, over the course of their investigation, the committee has apparently found “a far more extensive Russian effort to manipulate social media outlets to sow discord and to interfere in the 2016 election and American society.”
As for the part of the ICA that deals with Russia’s preference for Trump over Clinton, the committee again backs that up:
- The Committee found that the ICA provided a range of all-source reporting to support these assessments.
- The Committee concurs with intelligence and open-source assessments that this influence campaign was approved by President Putin.
- Further, a body of reporting, to include different intelligence disciplines, open source reporting on Russian leadership policy preferences, and Russian media content, showed that Moscow sought to denigrate Secretary Clinton.
- The ICA relies on public Russian leadership commentary, Russian state media reports, public examples of where Russian interests would have aligned with candidates’ policy statements, and a body of intelligence reporting to support the assessment that Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for Trump.
There was a slight disagreement on the pro-Trump issue… with the FBI and CIA saying they have “high confidence” and the NSA having “moderate confidence.”
The Senate report adds, “The Committee found that the analytical disagreement 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.”
A press release on Burr’s Senate website features this comment from Warner:
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.
[image via screengrab]
— —
