Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Bipartisan Senate Intel Committee report on Russian Interference in the 2016 election

As if we didn't already know intuitively that this was the case?

As the report is nearly 1,000 pages long, here are excerpts. Here's the link to the entire bipartisan report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Russian Active Measures and Interference in the 2016 US Election, Volume 5.  It specifies that Trump's campaign conspired with Russia to attack the American electorate and deprive us of the rightful outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
The [Senate Intel] Committee found that the Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multi faceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Parts of this effort are outlined in the Committee's earlier volumes on election security , social media, the Obama Administration's response to the threat, and the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment ICA).
The fifth and final volume focuses on the counterintelligence threat, outlining a wide range of Russian efforts to influence the Trump Campaign and the 2016 election. In this volume the Committee lays out its findings in detail by looking at many aspects of the counterintelligence threat posed by the Russian influence operation. For example, the Committee examined Paul Manafort's connections to Russian influence actors and the FBI's treatment of reporting produced by Christopher Steele. While the Committee does not describe the final result as a complete picture, this volume provides the most comprehensive description to date of Russia's activities and the threat they posed. This volume presents this information in topical sections in order to address coherently and in detail the wide variety of Russian actions. The events explained in these sections in many cases overlap, and references in each section will direct the reader to those overlapping parts of the volume. Immediately below is a summary of key findings from several sections. [...] 
(U) The Committee found that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian effort to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leak information damaging to Hillary Clinton and her campaign for president. Moscow's intent was to harm the Clinton Campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration , help the Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S.democratic process. WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian influence campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort. The Committee found significant indications that[redacted]. At the time of the first WikiLeaks releases, the U.S.Government had not yet declared WikiLeaks a hostile organization and many treated it as a journalistic entity.
While the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump Campaign sought to maximize the impact of those leaks to aid Trump's electoral prospects . Staff on the Trump Campaign sought advance notice about WikiLeaks releases, created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following their release, and encouraged further leaks. The Trump Campaign publicly undermined the attribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia and was indifferent to whether it and WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort. The Committee found no evidence that Campaign officials received an authoritative government notification that the hack was perpetrated by the Russian government before October 7, 2016 , when the ODNI and DHS issued a joint statement to that effect. However, the Campaign was aware of the extensive media reporting and other private sector attribution of the hack to Russian actors prior to that point. [...]
Additional views of SENATORS HEINRICH, FEINSTEIN, WYDEN , HARRIS, AND BENNET.
(U) Almost four years after the 2016 U.S.presidential election , the Committee has now published the bipartisan results of its investigation of the Russian government's election interference and efforts to aid Donald Trump's candidacy. The Committee's work product is voluminous , fact-oriented, and essential reading for all Americans. But the Committee has not sought to draw overarching conclusions about its investigation , opting instead to let the reader determine the significance of these events. These additional views provide necessary context for the reader regarding (1) the Trump Campaign's coopĂ©ration with Russia; (2) investigative limitations; and (3) significant ongoing concerns. 
(U) The Trump Campaign's Cooperation with Russia
(U) The Committee's bipartisan Report unambiguously shows that members of the Trump Campaign cooperated with Russian efforts to get Trump elected. It recounts efforts by Trump and his team to obtain dirt on their opponent from operatives acting on behalf of the Russian government. It reveals the extraordinary lengths by which Trump and his associates actively sought to enable the Russian interference operation by amplifying its electoral impact and rewarding its perpetrators even being warned of its Russian origins. And it presents, for the first time, concerning evidence that the head of the Trump Campaign was directly connected to the Russian meddling through his communications with an individual found to be a Russian intelligence officer. 
(U) These are stubborn facts that cannot be ignored. They build on the Committee's bipartisan findings in Volume 2 and Volume 4 that show an extensive Kremlin-directed effort to covertly help candidate Trump in 2016, and they speak to a willingness by a major party candidate and his associates, in the face of a foreign adversary's assault on the political integrity of the United States, to welcome that foreign threat in exchange for advancing their own self-interest.
(U) The Committee's bipartisan Report found that Paul Manafort, while he was Chairman of the Trump Campaign,was secretly communicating with a Russian intelligence officer with whom he discussed Campaign strategy and repeatedly shared internal Campaign polling data. This took place while the Russian intelligence operation to assist Trump was ongoing. Further, Manafort took steps to hide these communications and repeatedly lied to federal investigators, and his deputy on the Campaign destroyed evidence of communications with the Russian intelligence officer. The Committee obtained some information suggesting that the Russian intelligence officer, with whom Manafort had a longstanding relationship, may have been connected to the GRU's hack-and-leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election. This is what collusion looks like. [...]
(U) It is our conclusion, based on the facts detailed in the Committee's Report that the Russian intelligence services assault on the integrity of the 2016 U.S.electoral process and Trump and his associates' participation in and enabling of this Russian activity, represents one of the single most grave counterintelligence threats to American national security in the modern era. [...]
(U) There is also important additional context that should be provided to the reader regarding what the Committee's Report is, and what it is not. The Committee's Report does not duplicate the Special Counsel's investigation. The Special Counsel's work was criminal in nature, not a counterintelligence investigation. Counterintelligence investigations address intelligence questions pertaining to national security threats, not merely statutorily prohibited crimes. That is why the Committee pursued its investigation from a counterintelligence perspective. And it is why the Special Counsel's inability to "establish” a criminal conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and Russia does not convey the breadth and complexity of the threat presented by their actions. [...]
(U) Nevertheless , the facts above, which are further examined in the Committee's bipartisan Report, clearly show that what did happen between Russia and the Trump Campaign in 2016 is far worse than has been publicly revealed thus far. Furthermore, in nearly 1,000 pages of text, we are not aware of a single case where the information that is redacted makes the conduct of Trump or his associates less concerning. To the contrary , across the Report's most critical sections, the redacted information makes the already alarming public findings even more granular, explicit and concerning.
(U) The value of the Committee's investigation is not purely historical. The counterintelligence lessons contained in this report regarding what happened to the United States in 2016 should be an alarm bell for the nation, and for those preparing to defend the nation against current and evolving threats targeting the upcoming U.S. elections. Indeed, Russia is actively interfering again in the 2020 U.S. election to assist Donald Trump, and some of the President's associates are amplifying those efforts. It is vitally important that the country be ready. [...]
(U) It is our conclusion, based on the facts detailed in the Committee's Report that the Russian intelligence services assault on the integrity of the 2016 U.S. electoral process and Trump and his associates' participation in and enabling of this Russian activity, represents one of the single most grave counterintelligence threats to American national security in the modern era. [...]
Additional views of Senator Wyden
(U ) The fifth and final volume of the Committee's report includes a wealth of extremely troubling new revelations about the counterintelligence threat posed by Donald Trump and his campaign. Much of the new information in this report, however, remains needlessly classified . That is unfortunate, not only because the counterintelligence concerns that surround Donald Trump constitute an ongoing threat to national security, but because this report includes redacted information that is directly relevant to Russia's interference in the 2020 election.
(U) As the report details, the Committee was hindered in numerous ways by the subjects of its investigation. In other respects, however, the impediments to the investigation were self inflicted. First, while the Committee investigated interactions between Donald Trump and particular Russians and identified deeply concerning financial links, it did not seek to answer key questions about Donald Trump's finances that relate directly to counterintelligence. In short, the Committee did not follow the money. [...]
(U) From day one, I said that the Committee must follow the money--that is, scrutinize Donald Trump's extensive financial entanglements with foreign adversaries. Following the money is, after all, Counterintelligence 101. The way to compromise people is through money. Donald Trump, had he been an applicant for a national security position in the U.S.government, would never have obtained even the lowest level security clearance. What's more, no review of his suitability for a clearance would have ignored his finances. It is therefore derelict that the Committee, having set out to conduct an investigation of counterintelligence threats and vulnerabilities, would have failed to scrutinize so much information that would be relevant to any application for a security clearance. This must be the last time that the Committee gives short shrift to this issue. 
(U) The Committee investigated specific counterintelligence threats and did uncover concerning new financial connections. The section on Donald Trump's pursuit of a Trump Tower Moscow, while he was publicly praising Vladimir Putin, is deeply troubling, particularly given the revelation that Putin was almost certainly aware of the deal by January 2016. The report also describes important new information about the Agalarovs, with whom Donald Trump had a long-standing financial relationship, noting that Aras Agalarov has significant ties to the Russian government, including to individuals involved in influence operations targeting the 2016 election. Unfortunately, this section also suffers from extensive redactions. 
(U) These and other revelations in the report suffice to establish that Donald Trump poses a counterintelligence threat to the United States, no less because he is President of the United States and not a government employee with a low level security clearance. But the report falls far short of telling the full story. As has been extensively reported in the media, Donald Trump has spent decades developing, maintaining, and relying on financial relationships with Russia. The details of these relationships would almost certainly lead investigators to specific counterintelligence concerns. But the sheer volume of Trump's financial entanglements with Russia also point toward the inescapable conclusion that Donald Trump has been, as Donald Jr. acknowledged publicly, financially dependent on Russia and that, in itself, is a counterintelligence threat.
While the report overall may, to some, be depressing or discouraging, it is important that we take heart knowing that knowledge is power. We SHALL improvise, adapt, and overcome. Trump will NOT succeed.

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