Multiple experts told the Senate Intelligence Committee at a hearing Thursday that they tend to agree with the USA intelligence community’s assertion that Russia’s government played an active role in interfering in the 2016 US presidential election.
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Trump claimed early in March that Obama ordered telephone calls at New York’s Trump Tower intercepted, but both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency have denied having any evidence supporting that accusation. The former US Army officer and ex-FBI agent also said he feared Russian Federation would try to kill or discredit him for this testimony.
Trump said Nunes’ comments about the surveillance helped justify his insistence, made without evidence, that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower in NY, his campaign headquarters.
And he says the Russians continue to interfere in USA politics, specifically targeting House Speaker Paul Ryan of late.
“I don’t know Putin, but if we can get along with Russian Federation, that’s a great thing”, he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
A Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee wants a thorough review of the financial relationships between Russian Federation and President Donald Trump and his associates.
He said until that improves, or until “they collectively have some sort of standard that the public or the media holds to itself, we’re going to keep seeing them fall for these campaigns”, and not just from Russian Federation.
Burr, meanwhile, said that he is keenly interested in Russia’s attempts to influence European elections and whether Russian efforts in the U.S. offer insights into their efforts to disrupt elections in Western democracies like France and Germany.
“Soviet active measures, strategy and tactics have been reborn and updated for the modern Russian regime and the digital age”, said Watts.
As for the U.S.’s ability to stop it, the former special agent criticized the country’s organizational capabilities to cultivate a unified response.
“The overriding issue with why Russian Federation did this to the United States and does it now to Europe is: We are weak. We do not respond”, said Watts.
“We are weak. We do not respond, we have no organized response as a country or even a policy towards Russian Federation right now”, he said at one point.
Sen. Mark Warner is alleging that Russian Federation continually sought to undermine American trust in the US media.
“You can hack stuff and be covert, but you can’t influence and be covert”, Watts said.
But US senators warned that Europe is now experiencing the same type of computer hacking and disinformation campaign that the United States did. When asked by Oklahoma Republican James Lankford, who appeared visibly dismayed, why, if Russians have long used these methods, they finally worked in this election cycle, Watts’ answer was extraordinary. Putin describes the allegations as part of the USA domestic political struggle.
Wyden asked the expert witnesses at the hearing to talk about Russia’s history of money laundering and corruption so as to help the committee “track this fuzzy line between the Russian oligarchs, Russian organized crime and the Russian government”.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) decried calls for the committee to step aside from its investigation into Russian election interference, saying that “to turn and abdicate to the Senate is totally irresponsible”. Lindsey Graham, as well as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, according to a cyber security expert who testified before the Senate Thursday.
Another House Intelligence Republican said Democrats are going after Nunes because he’s close to figuring out who might have shared surveillance of the Trump transition with the Obama Administration. “The public deserves to hear the truth about possible Russian involvement in our elections”.
Burr says the Senate committee has contacted 20 individuals about sitting for interviews.
A separate investigation in the House of Representatives into the intelligence agencies’ allegations of a Russian role in the US election has become mired in controversy over accusations that its Republican chairman, Trump ally Devin Nunes, is not impartial.
Meanwhile, White House counsel sent a surprise invite to investigators, telling them they could review intelligence from the NSC at the White House.
“We’re not asking the House to play any role in our investigation”.
Burr said on Wednesday that his committee’s investigation would determine if “our confidence levels on their ratings of low, medium, or high confidence, in fact, match”.
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Ahead of Thursday’s Senate hearing, Warner pledged to keep the investigation focused on the reason it was started. Mark Warner (VA) asked the panel if they had any doubt that Russian Federation had attempted to interfere in some aspects of the 2016 election. Both Trump and the Russian Government have denied the claims.
