Dems ask for hearings on Russian attempts to attack election infrastructure

Viral News - Democrats on the Senate committee overseeing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are asking for hearings on Russian attempts to attack U.S. election infrastructure.

While the intelligence community has not found evidence that Russian-backed hackers targeted or compromised systems involved in vote tallying, it has concluded that Russian intelligence accessed elements of state or local electoral boards.

The Democrats made the demand in a Friday letter to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The letter calls for the committee to investigate alleged Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

The seven Democrats on the committee heavily cited the intelligence community’s unclassified report concluding that the Russian government ordered a hacking and disinformation campaign with the intent of getting President Trump elected.

“An investigation of Russia’s attempts to infiltrate and influence the U.S. presidential election, particularly the attacks on state voter databases, would fall squarely within the jurisdiction of this committee,” the Democrats, led by ranking member Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), wrote.

“This committee should investigate what happened in the 2016 election to ensure that DHS’s assistance is appropriately tailored to prevent infiltration of election boards and other election infrastructure in the future,” they wrote.

The report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence last month concluded that the Russian government aimed to undermine U.S. democracy, damage Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and elect Trump.

“Russian intelligence accessed elements of multiple state or local electoral boards. Since early 2014, Russian intelligence has researched U.S. electoral processes and related technology and equipment,” the intelligence community wrote. “DHS assesses that the types of systems we observed Russian actors targeting or compromising are not involved in vote tallying.”

Reports emerged in August that hackers had breached election databases in Illinois and Arizona. Leading up to the presidential election, dozens of states requested help from the DHS to secure their voting systems from cyber threats.

The Obama administration in January designated U.S. election infrastructure as “critical,” in timing with the report about the Russian influence campaign. John Kelly, Trump’s DHS secretary, has indicated that he will keep that designation in place.

The senate Democrats asked Johnson to launch an investigation into Russia’s election interference by subpoenaing individuals from the government and private sector and scheduling regular public hearings on the matter.

“Russia’s organized campaign to undermine our presidential election and target our election infrastructure is certainly one of the most pressing issues facing our nation,” they wrote.

Other congressional panels, including the House and Senate Intelligence committees, are already probing Russia’s election meddling.

McCaskill has separately asked to be briefed on any ongoing FBI investigations related to contacts between the Russian government and Trump campaign or administration officials, following a New York Times report that Trump campaign aides had repeated contact with Russian intelligence.

By Morgan Chalfant (thehill.com)

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