Obama orders full review
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Did Russia have a hand in US elections?
Obama orders review of Russian election-related hacking
Story highlights
- The review is intended to be done before Donald Trump's inauguration
- Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned Russian involvement
Washington (CNN)President
Barack Obama has ordered a full review into hacking by the Russians
aimed at influencing US elections going back to 2008, the White House
said Friday.
"The President
has directed the Intelligence Community to conduct a full review of what
happened during the 2016 election process. It is to capture lessons
learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders," White House
Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser Lisa Monaco said at a
Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters Friday. "This is
consistent with the work that we did over the summer to engage Congress
on the threats that we were seeing."
White
House spokesman Eric Schultz added later that the review would
encompass malicious cyber activity related to US elections going back to
2008.
Monaco said the administration would be mindful of the consequences of revealing the results of their review publicly,
and Schultz said they will make public "as much as we can." All of the
Democratic senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee have called on
Obama to declassify intelligence on Russia's actions during the
election.
"You want to do so very
attentive to not disclosing sources and methods that would impede our
ability to identify and attribute malicious actors in the future,"
Monaco said of disclosure.
The review is intended to be done before Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20, Monaco said. "He expects to get a report prior to him leaving office."
In response to the news, the Russian government called for evidence of its involvement, denying claims made by the US.
"We
are also very interested in understanding what they accused Russia of,"
said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. "Many times the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Minister Lavrov have asked
Americans to provide full information. But never had any response."
The
US government before the election publicly blamed senior levels of the
Russian government for cyberattacks designed to influence the outcome,
including hacks of Democratic groups like the Democratic National
Committee.
A steady stream of
documents and internal emails from Democratic groups and from Hillary
Clinton's campaign chairman were released in the weeks and months
leading up to the election, with damaging consequences for Democrats.
There
was also concern about attempted attacks on voter registration systems
at the state and local level, though the intelligence community never
said there was strong evidence that was tied to the Russian government.
Voter registration databases are attractive targets for financially
motivated hackers, as well.
Questions
have remained about the extent of the hacking and Russians'
motivations. While the intelligence community has not suggested the
attacks were designed to bolster President-elect Donald Trump, the
impact of the hacks were much more damaging to Democrats and to Clinton.
Trump has continually denied a
Russian role in the hacking, despite the overwhelming consensus from
private sector cybersecurity firms that investigated the hacks and from
the various US government intelligence agencies.
Members
of his own party have strongly pointed the finger at Russia, and
Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham are reportedly leading
the charge among Republicans to investigate the hacking, according to The Washington Post, and Graham has told CNN he intends to be unrelenting.
"I'm
going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia," Graham told
CNN. "I think they're one of the most destabilizing influences on the
world stage, I think they did interfere with our elections, and I want
Putin personally to pay a price."
House
Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said Russian interference
was real, but dinged the administration for being slow to react.
"Russia's
cyber-attacks are no surprise to the House Intelligence Committee,"
Nunes said in a statement. "Unfortunately the Obama administration,
dedicated to delusions of 'resetting' relations with Russia, ignored
pleas by numerous Intelligence Committee members to take more forceful
action against the Kremlin's aggression. It appears, however, that after
eight years the administration has suddenly awoken to the threat."
Democrats were quick to praise Obama on Friday and pressured Trump to change his tune.
"Defending
our elections from foreign meddling is more important than any
political party's advantage or disadvantage," House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. "Any Administration should be deeply
troubled by Russia's attempt to tamper with our elections."
The
top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, California Rep. Adam
Schiff, praised the administration for its move and called on the White
House to declassify as much as it could.
"Given
President-elect Trump's disturbing refusal to listen to our
intelligence community and accept that the hacking was orchestrated by
the Kremlin, there is an added urgency to the need for a thorough review
before President Obama leaves office next month," Schiff said in a
statement. "More than that, the administration must begin to take steps
to respond forcefully to this blatant cyber meddling, and work with our
allies in Europe who have been targets of similar attacks to impose
costs on the Kremlin; if we do not, we can expect to see a lot more of
this in the near future."
Oregon
Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called
the President's move "constructive" and said he has no doubt about the
Moscow's role.
"Let's put it this
way: i have no reason to doubt the assessment made by the intelligence
community back in October," he said on CNN. "The intelligence community
was very explicit."
Monaco declined to draw conclusions before the review was complete.
"We'll see what comes out of the report. There will be a report to a range of stakeholders, including Congress," she said.
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