Florida Reps. Murphy, Waltz request more information on Russia and Iran hacking

U.S. Reps. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) and Michael Waltz (R-FL) are seeking a briefing from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Director of National Intelligence, and the Attorney General on Russian and Iranian interference in the 2020 election.

The request follows an announcement last week by FBI Director Christopher Wray and DNI John Ratcliffe that Iran and Russia have actively interfered in the 2020 election. Specifically, voters in Waltz’s district received some of the threatening emails, which the FBI said originated in Iran.

“It is well-established that a favored tactic of autocratic governments is to use cyber-tools to chisel away at the foundation of a democracy, the free and fair election,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Wray, Ratcliffe, and AG Bill Barr. “It is also clear that Florida is a target of these efforts. Florida’s election infrastructure was specifically—and successfully—targeted by Russia in connection with the 2016 election. However, the Florida congressional delegation, along with the general public, was not made aware of this fact until the May 2019 release of the “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” known as the Mueller Report.

Previously, Murphy and Waltz sponsored the Achieving Lasting Electoral Reforms on Transparency and Security (ALERTS) Act after Russian hackers accessed two Florida counties’ voter information in 2016. The ALERTS Act would require public notification when voters’ information is hacked.

Following the announcement last Wednesday, Murphy and waltz requested a classified briefing.

“During that briefing, we learned that the election infrastructure in at least two Florida counties had been breached. We were told the county names but were prohibited from revealing them to the voting public. To this day, the federal government has not publicly released the identity of those counties,” they wrote. “In closing, we thank you for the public briefing you held yesterday, notifying the American people of Iranian and Russian efforts to undermine the 2020 election. We have long argued that our government should err on the side of telling citizens more, not less, when foreign powers interfere with our democracy.”