Bipartisan effort supports intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference in elections

Following President Donald Trump’s assertions of doubt on the accuracy of the American intelligence community’s findings on Russian election interference, a bipartisan effort in the House of Representatives introduced a resolution this week reaffirming support for those findings.

At a joint summit conference after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Trump refused to say if he believes the official assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies, as well as his Director of National Intelligence, that have concluded that Putin ordered an influence campaign to undermine the 2016 presidential election.

U.S. Reps. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced the resolution.

“Our U.S. intelligence community has consistently affirmed that Russia deliberately interfered and influenced the 2016 election. In fact, 12 Russian intelligence officers were just indicted by the U.S. government for compromising our election,” said Ruppersberger, former Ranking Member on the House Intelligence Committee and the Member who represents the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. “Instead of taking Putin on, Trump discredited our own intelligence workers. So if he won’t stand up for our country and our democracy, the House of Representatives will.”

Congress had previously voted to sanction Russia over its actions in that election, though it has yet to be enforced by the Administration.

“Our nation must never tolerate a Russian autocrat that seeks to interfere in our elections,” Fitzpatrick, himself a former FBI Special Agent, said. “As a former FBI Special Agent, I support our Intelligence Community, and I stand by their conclusions. Russia sought to undermine our democratic institutions and our 2016 elections. It’s clear that Russia continues to use cyber weapons to sow division and distrust both here and abroad. We must hold these foreign actors accountable while strengthening the integrity of our Intelligence Community.”