President Obama last week instructed the intelligence community (IC) to conduct a full review of the pattern of malicious cyber activity related to the U.S. presidential election cycle while Congress is moving toward investigations into the 2016 Russian hacking around the elections.
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz announced on Dec. 9 that Obama requested the report, set to be delivered to him before he leaves office on Jan. 20, will examine “this pattern of malicious cyber activity timed to our elections, take stock of our defensive capabilities, and capture lessons learned to make sure that we briefed members of Congress and stakeholders as appropriate.”
Schultz emphasized the report will go beyond just the 2016 cyber hacking, but malicious cyber activity timed to the presidential election cycle more generally, going back to 2008. “So it will be broader than just looking at this past election,” he said.
He reiterated that there were intrusions into both the Obama and McCain campaigns in 2008, although there were no “noted episodes in 2012.”
This announcement comes as the New York Times and Washington Post reports from Dec. 9 detailed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) concluded with “high confidence” that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump, now President-elect, win the election. The agency reportedly shared its assessments with key senators in closed-door briefings on Capitol Hill and top Obama administration officials, including the president, earlier this month.
The CIA conclusion and presentation was not a formal assessment produced by all 17 intelligence agencies, due to “minor disagreements among intelligence officials about the agency’s assessment, in part because some questions remain unanswered,” the Post report said.
On Oct. 7 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) issued a joint statement that the IC is “confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.”
The joint statement noted the disclosures on sites like DCLeaks.com and Wikileaks as well as the Gufficer 2.0 persona “are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.”
Schultz said the White House will make as much of the upcoming report as public as possible. “Obviously you can imagine a report like this is going to contain highly sensitive and even classified information, perhaps, so when that report is submitted we’re going to take a look. We want to make sure we brief Congress and relevant stakeholders.”
He also reiterated what the original DHS-ODNI report said, that this kind of elections hacking is not new to Russia. “We’ve seen them do this for years, try and meddle in elections and engage in similar activities in Europe and across Asia. So they, unfortunately, have a long record of this.”
Members of Congress reacted swiftly to the news of this review.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) welcomed the review in relation to purported Russian actions.
“Over the past six months I’ve become increasingly concerned by efforts of the Russian government to influence our election, and I agree with the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Homeland Security that only the senior-most government officials in Russia could have ordered this effort.”
“I believe we need to understand exactly what happened, how it occurred and how we can prevent it from happening again,” she added.
In contrast, Rep. Devin Nunes (R- Calif.), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence criticized the Obama administration on Dec. 9 for not previously taking a hard enough stance against Russia.
“Russia’s cyber-attacks are no surprise to the House Intelligence Committee, which has been closely monitoring Russia’s belligerence for years—as I’ve said many times, the Intelligence Community has repeatedly failed to anticipate Putin’s hostile actions.”
“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,” he added.
Nunes was named to the executive committee of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team on Nov. 11. In the position he advises Trump on appointments of Cabinet member and other top administration positions.
Trump and his transition team have repeatedly expressed doubts that Russia had any role in the DNC hacks whatsoever.
On Dec. 9 the Trump transition team attacked the CIA assessment in a press release. “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.”
In an interview with Time, Trump personally reiterated his disbelief that Russia was responsible for the 2016 campaign hacking. “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe they interfered.” He also said he believes the IC conclusions are politically driven.
Various members of Congress have called for investigations into the 2016 elections cyber incidents in differing capacities including special commissions, new permanent special committees, and using existing congressional committees.
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services (SASC); Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking member of the committee; committee member Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Senate Democratic Leader-elect Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) released a joint statement on Sunday calling for a bipartisan effort to investigate the matter.
“Recent reports of Russian interference in our election should alarm every American. Congress’s national security committees have worked diligently to address the complex challenge of cybersecurity, but recent events show that more must be done,” they saidi n a statement.
“Democrats and Republicans must work together, and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress, to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyberattacks.”
Sens. Feinstein, Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Monday called for the creation of an independent, nonpartisan commission to investigate the alleged Russia interference in the election. Their proposed commission would investigate the Russia cyberattacks on U.S. political entities and election infrastructure, seek to identify those responsible, and recommend responses and actions the U.S. can take to defend itself in the future.
The proposed commission would be modeled on past ones, like the 9/11 Commission, and compile available classified intelligence and open source information, conduct hearings and interview with subpoena power, and report its findings to Congress within 18 months of being formed.
“We’ve seen what Russia can do with a MiG, but they can be equally destructive with a mouse. The American people deserve a nonpartisan, transparent, public investigation into this insidious attack on our democratic institutions,” Cardin said in a statement.
“It is time to rise above the fray and engage in a serious, independent, and bipartisan investigation of the allegations that the Russians interfered with the American presidential election. This is larger than any one candidate or any one election,” Leahy added.
“We need this commission to determine if my personal belief is correct—that the real intent of what appears to be a classic Russian covert influence campaign was to harm the candidacy of the Democratic candidate or undermine our democratic system,” Feinstein said.
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) on Monday also called for the creation of a new body: a Permanenet Select Committee on Cybersecurity.
“Cybersecurity policy is one of the most significant and complex challenges facing Congress, yet the Senate’s current structure to address cyber attacks remains inefficient,” he said.
The committee would be more narrowly tailored than current committees to provide oversight on U.S. strategy to protect sensitive data, defend the networks, and deter malicious cyber actors.
However, Nunes opposes opening new special committees to investigate 2016 election hacking matters because “cyber attacks, including Russian attacks, have been one of the committee’s top priorities for many years, we’ve held extensive briefings and hearings on the topic,” he said in a statement Monday.
Nunes said he sees no benefit to opening further investigations that would duplicate the oversight work of the committee and IC inquiries.
He also vowed to oversee the production of the Obama administration report “to ensure analytical integrity.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) also released a statement on Monday supporting Nunes’ point of using the House Intelligence Committee.
“This important work will continue and has my support. As I’ve said before, any foreign intervention in our elections is entirely unacceptable.”
However, Ryan also addressed Trump’s perspective that IC assessments are politically motivated.
“At the same time, exploiting the work of our intelligence community for partisan purposes does a grave disservice to those professionals and potentially jeopardizes our national security,” he said. “As we work to protect our democracy from foreign influence, we should not cast doubt on the clear and decisive outcome of this election.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) supported a congressional investigation into the election hacking, but focused on using the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“Obviously any foreign breach of our cybersecurity measures is disturbing, and I strongly condemn any such efforts,” he said.“It’s an important subject and we intend to review it on a bipartisan basis.”
He also said the SASC would play a role in the investigation as well, with McCain directing a review of the threats posed by cyber attacks.