New Senate Intelligence Committee report backs up the intel community's findings on Russian election meddling, and flies in the face of Trump's attacks
- The Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan report about the US intelligence community's January 2017 assessment on Russian election meddling.
- The committee found the assessment is a "sound intelligence product" and that the conclusions were "reached in a professional and transparent manner."
- The findings fly in the face of President Donald Trump's and his allies' attacks on the intelligence community's credibility and bias.
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The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on Tuesday largely underlining what the US intelligence community said in January 2017: Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help elect President Donald Trump.
Tuesday's report flies in the face of a flurry of attacks from Trump and his allies. They frequently accuse US intelligence and law enforcement agencies of bias and political corruption.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is still in the process of conducting a full bipartisan review, said in its initial report on Tuesday that Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) is a "sound intelligence product" whose conclusions were "reached in a professional and transparent manner."
The senators found that the Kremlin directed Russia's meddling, interfering specifically to hurt then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help Trump, then the Republican nominee. The document did not draw any conclusions on whether Russia's campaign was successful.
In a press release Tuesday, the panel added that the ICA's conclusions were "well supported and the tradecraft was strong."
"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," Sen. Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the committee, said in a statement.
Vice chairman Mark Warner echoed his colleague.
"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," the Virginia senator said. "As numerous intelligence and national security officials in the Trump administration have since unanimously re-affirmed, the ICA findings were accurate and on point."
Senate intel committee reinforces the ICA's findings
Tuesday's report touched on several facets of Russia's election interference, including its social media disinformation campaign, Russian President Vladimir Putin's intentions in ordering the influence campaign, government-linked hacking and cyberattacks, and the country's use of its own state media outlets to spread misinformation.
The ICA said that while Moscow has long sought to undermine the western world order, its election meddling represented "a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations."
Tuesday's report said more even details have come to light since the January 2017 report that further support the ICA's conclusions, including:
- Russia's extensive use of a notorious troll farm, The Internet Research Agency, to conduct a widespread social media disinformation campaign
- Russia's hack of the Democratic National Committee during the election
- Russia's attempts to breach critical election infrastructure shortly before Election Day 2016
The panel also noted that it has gained additional insights into Russia's interference based on interviews of key figures as part of its own Russia investigation.
As far as the ICA's conclusion that Putin wanted to help Trump and hurt Clinton, the Senate Intelligence Committee said the document "provided a range of all-source reporting to support these assessments."
The panel's conclusion on this specific finding will likely infuriate Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the intelligence community's assessment that Russia sought to tilt the election in his favor.
Trump and his associates are currently under FBI investigation over whether his campaign colluded with Moscow during the election, an accusation the president and his allies have vehemently denied.
So far, the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation has yielded 19 indictments and five guilty pleas, including from former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates. Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort also stands charged with over 20 counts but has pleaded not guilty.
Clarifying some aspects of the ICA
The ICA originally stoked some controversy on the right when it said the CIA and FBI had "high confidence" in its findings while the NSA had "moderate confidence."
The Senate Intelligence Committee investigated the discrepancy, and said in Tuesday's report that the disagreement was "reasonable, transparent, and openly debated," and that it is likely the result of "analytic differences" between the agencies.
Trump and his allies have also floated the theory - without evidence - that the FBI and intelligence community relied extensively on an unverified dossier a former British spy Christopher Steele compiled to inform their conclusions and embark on a politically motivated "witch hunt."
But the committee found - based on its own interviews with witnesses - that "the dossier did not in any way inform the analysis in the ICA - including the key findings - because it was unverified information."
Tuesday's report faulted the ICA for not including an updated assessment on how Russia uses its state media outlets to push its agenda.
The panel also concluded that the ICA fell short in describing the full scope of Russia's interference in US politics and the US's response.