Alexei Nikolsky, Kremlin Pool Photo / AP Images
- The Senate Intelligence Committee released the first volume of its final report on Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.
- The document contains many redactions and focuses primarily on election security, includes new details of how the Russians targeted voting infrastructure in 2016, and what federal, state, and local officials can do to protect against foreign interference going forward.
- Scroll down to read the committee's key findings from the first volume of its report.
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The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday released the first volume of its final report on Russia's interference in the 2016 US election. The panel had been conducting its investigation of the matter in parallel with the FBI and other congressional committees since the US intelligence community first revealed Russia was meddling in the race.
The first volume of the Senate committee's final report focuses on election security. Many of the details have been confirmed by the former special counsel Robert Mueller, as well as federal agencies tasked with combatting foreign meddling.
Read more: The 7 biggest takeaways from Mueller's marathon Capitol Hill testimony
The key findings highlighted in the document were:
- Russia "directed extensive activity" from at least 2014 to 2017 "against U.S. election infrastructure" both at the state and local level. The committee reviewed the intelligence underlying the Department of Homeland Security's inquiry on the matter from 2017 and concluded that there was no evidence that any votes were changed or that voting machines were manipulated.
- The committee is not confident what Russia's intent was, but it "may have sought to undermine confidence in the 2016 U.S. elections simply through the discovery of their activity."
- The Russians exploited the loopholes in the US intelligence apparatus to try to tamper with critical election infrastructure. Because US intelligence is primarily "foreign-facing," this may have made domestic cybersecurity more vulnerable to being breached.
- The DHS and FBI alerted states about the possibility of Russian cyberattacks in the late summer and fall of 2016, "but the warnings did not provide enough information or go to the right people."
- Federal, state, and local officials in 2016 were torn over whether to alert the general public of Russia's attacks. Some "were deeply concerned" that warning the public would do more harm than good by undermining confidence in the electoral process.
- Russia's interference in the 2016 election warrants "renewed attention" to "vulnerabilities in US voting infrastructure" going forward.
- To that end, the DHS is trying harder to work with states and give them resources to help secure future elections against foreign interference.
- Congress also granted $380 million to states last year to help bolster cybersecurity and replace faulty voting machines.