The top two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee gave a detailed update on the panel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election today, saying that the "issue of collusion" with Russia remains open.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the chairman of the committee, went through a number of issues that the investigators have looked into and the breadth of their search.
Burr said the "general consensus" of those involved with the Russian investigation, they "trust the conclusions" of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). The assessment concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign to undermine the U.S. election and favor then-candidate Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
Burr said that the committee believes "the Russian intelligence service is determined, clever," and something that campaigns should be wary of in any future elections.
Regarding possible collusion, Burr said, "We continue to investigate both intelligence and witnesses."
Ranking committee member Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said that there is a "large consensus that they hacked into political files, released those files in an effort to influence the election. We think they [Russian actors] actively tried to at least test the vulnerabilities of 21 states electoral systems and we feel that they used the social media firms both in terms of paid advertising, and what I believe is more problematic ... created false accounts."
The Republican, Richard Burr, also stated rather emphatically that "not vote totals were affected," but I would suggest at this time that that is also an open question.
New evidence is coming out almost every day, and I would not be at all surprised to learn that some of the polling stations WERE successfully hacked and votes were altered.
According to WaPo this presser was actually a compromise as the Republicans wanted to release an "interim report," and the Democrats stopped for being premature.
Apparently the Republicans are being pressured to put an end to these investigations to protest Trump, and continue moving their agenda forward.
Of course there is also the Special Counsel, and it does not appear that he is at all interested in ending his investigation.
Courtesy of Reuters:
The special counsel investigating whether Russia tried to sway the 2016 U.S. election has taken over FBI inquiries into a former British spy's dossier of allegations of Russian financial and personal links to President Donald Trump's campaign and associates, sources familiar with the inquiry told Reuters.
It seems that this dossier is the thing that really puts a fright into Trump and his associates.
For good reason as a number of the allegations have proven accurate.
And now with Mueller on the case, perhaps there is much more that will come out as completely accurate as well.
Source http://ift.tt/2y30EVU
