FBI director James Comey told a Senate panel that there was "penetration on the Republican side of the aisle and old Republican National Committee domains" no longer in use.
He later added that "there was evidence of hacking directed at state-level organizations, state-level campaigns, and the RNC, but old domains of the RNC, meaning old emails they weren't using. None of that was released."
Comey said there was no sign "that the Trump campaign or the current RNC was successfully hacked."
Asked by Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, whether the hacker had the ability to selectively leak that old information, Comey indicated that they did.
Comey also assesssed that "they got far deeper and wider into the (Democratic National Committee) than the RNC," adding that "similar techniques were used in both cases."
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate committee, examining the cyber breaches, that the intelligence community concluded with "high confidence" that Russia hacked the election to "denigrate" Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and contrast her unfavorably to Republican Donald Trump.
So older Republican e-mail accounts WERE hacked, but not the current RNC or the Trump campaign. Hmm.
Does ANYBODY not think that those older GOP e-mail accounts would have yielded a treasure trove of useful data?
Depending on how old they are they could contain information about the John McCain campaign, the lead up to the Iraq War, evidence of corruption among lawmakers, possible inter office affairs, the possibilities are endless.
And why would the Russians even bother hacking into the current Republican e-mails or the Trump campaign when everything was already going according to plan?
Earlier in the hearing there was also this exchange:
Comey refused to comment on whether the FBI is investigating connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.
But Sen. Angus King of Maine, an Independent, alluded tartly to Comey's very public statements about investigations into Clinton during the election campaign -- "the irony of you making that statement I cannot avoid."
Comey said that there was a difference between open and closed investigations. He pushed back on King, saying, "You asked me if you have any pending investigations and we're not going to talk about that."
That's funny because we were told repeatedly that the Clinton investigation was not entirely closed before Comey sent that letter which played such a large part in costing Hillary the presidency.
And to my mind by saying that he cannot comment on any investigations that might be ongoing concerning Trump, that means there are ongoing investigations concerning Trump.
I think THAT should be announced to the American people BEFORE he gets sworn into office.
I am not the only one who thinks that.
And there also clearly needs to be an independent non-partisan commission to investigate Russia's influence on this election, and the ties between them and the Trump campaign.I suspect this big news will not get full coverage: intel committee member says Comey should tell public what FBI knows of Trump-Russia ties— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 10, 2017
We also need to stop saying that the hacks had no impact on the outcome of the election when Donald Trump cited information leaked by Wikileaks over 100 times.
He did that because he knew it would have an impact, the only question left unanswered is when did he know he was citing information obtained by Russian hackers?
Update: Well as it turns out Trump himself may very well have been hacked by the Russians.
Courtesy of CNN:
Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.
The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.
The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials.
Sources tell CNN that these same allegations about communications between the Trump campaign and the Russians, mentioned in classified briefings for congressional leaders last year, prompted then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid to send a letter to FBI Director Comey in October, in which he wrote, "It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government -- a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States."
CNN has confirmed that the synopsis was included in the documents that were presented to Mr. Trump but cannot confirm if it was discussed in his meeting with the intelligence chiefs.
The Trump transition team declined repeated requests for comment.
Okay help me out here, is this the right time to say "We told you so?"
Well I think we now know why the Russians worked so hard to get Trump elected.
Yes, yes you are.
Source http://ift.tt/2igIyHW
