Senate panel concurs with Intelligence Committee Assessment on Russian meddling in 2016 election

Russian cyber operations went beyond the hack of Democratic National Committee emails during 2016 elections, and the Intelligence Committee Assessment (ICA) on Russian activities is “well-supported,” according to a summary released on Tuesday by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

U.S. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Mark Warner (D-VA) released the second unclassified summary of the investigation into Russia’s election activities. The assessment agrees with the ICA’s conclusion that Russian meddling in the election marked a “significant escalation in directness, level of activity and scope of effort” to undermine liberal democracy.

“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,” Burr, chairman of the committee, said. “The committee continues its investigation, and I am hopeful that this installment 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.”

The assessment concurs with the ICA’s finding that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the campaign to undermine public faith in democracy and to discredit Hillary Clinton. Additionally, Russia showed a preference for President Donald Trump and worked to help him.

“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,” Warner, ranking member of the committee, 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. 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.”

Russia’s influence campaign included cyber intrusions, Russia’s “state-run propaganda machine” and a network of quasi-government trolls who worked to boost Kremlin messaging to international audiences, the committee summary concluded.