Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the 2016 hacking of Democratic Party accounts and the release of emails intended to undermine Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the First Chamber Intelligence Committee concluded in the final report of his Russian probe, who also found no evidence that President Donald Trump merged with Moscow. .
“Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s attempt to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leak information damage to Hillary Clinton and her campaign for president,” the bilingual panel wrote in the report, which was released Tuesday. “Moscow’s intent was to undermine the Clinton campaign, damage an expected Clinton presidency, help the Trump campaign after Trump nominated the presumptive Republican, and undermine the US democratic process.”
The commission’s three-year probe found several contacts between Trump’s associates and Russians as people with ties to the Russian government, as well as Trump’s efforts to take political advantage of the leaks. But several Republicans wrote that the commission “found no evidence of collusion between President Trump and the Russians.”
However, the report called the presence of former Trump campaign president Paul Manafort a “serious threat of opposition.”
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Manafort “created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to influence and obtain confidential information about the Trump campaign,” the report said. The commission was particularly concerned about sharing Manafort’s information with people they say were affiliated with Russian intelligence services and staff of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
This includes sharing polling information and campaign strategy with Konstantin Kilimnik, who calls the commission a Russian intelligence officer.
The report also provides detailed evidence of Trump’s secret pursuit of a deal with Trump Tower Moscow in 2015 and 2016 during his presidential campaign through his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen – something the commission finds Putin was almost certainly aware of – and Donald Trump The efforts of Jr. to obtain harmful information about Hillary Clinton from Russians at a Trump Tower meeting in 2016.
Reply to ‘Access Hollywood’
The report also describes the efforts of the Trump campaign through Roger Stone to gain advance knowledge of future leaks of Democratic emails via Wikileaks.
The timing of those leaks would have a major impact on a key moment during the campaign, and would come just after the release in early October 2016 of an “Access Hollywood” band with Trump using vulgar language about women.
Stone, who found the commission aware in advance that the tape would be released, told an associate, Jerome Corsi, that he “wanted the Podesta game to balance the news cycle” and later Stone told him to leave WikiLeaks “the Podesta emails leave immediately, “per Corsi. John Podesta was Clinton’s campaign chairman.
The commission also found that Trump “in fact talked to Stone about it Wikileaks and with members of his campaign on access to Stone Wikileaks on several occasions, ”despite Trump’s written testimony to Attorney General Robert Mueller that he did not recall such discussions.
Stone also drafted a series of proposed pro-Russian tweets for Trump, sent them to one of his assistants and said they were requested by Trump himself.
One of the suggested tweets was: “I want a new detainee with Russia under Putin.” Trump did not send that tweet.
Contacts of Trump-Russia
Trump has since commuted Stone’s sentence to seven federal criminals, including lying to Congress to protect the president, manipulate witnesses and obstruct.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the panel, said the report, which was sorted through millions of documents and hundreds of witness interviews, “revealed” a breathtaking level of contact between Trump officials and Russian government operatives. “
“This cannot happen again,” he said in a statement. “While we are in the heat of the campaign season in 2020, I strongly urge campaigns, the Executive Department, Congress and the American people to listen to the lessons of this report to protect our democracy.”
A group of Democratic senators, including presumptive Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, presented their views in an annex to the report which suggested that the findings did not appear to be a conspiracy.
She focused on sharing Manafort’s data with Kilimnik and then lied to federal investigators about it several times.
Additional views
“The commission has received some information suggesting that the Russian intelligence officer, with whom Manafort had a long-term relationship, may be linked to the GRU’s hacking-and-leak operation targeting the US. elections of 2016. This is what tension looks like, ”she wrote.
Russia has long denied interference in US elections.
Republicans point to Trump’s lack of evidence of conspiracy and criticism of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s use of the benevolent “Steele dossier” in its investigation, while warning that threats continue from Russia and other countries, including China and Iran, ahead of November.
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“The commission found absolutely no evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump as his campaign collaborated with the Russian government to mediate in the 2016 elections,” said acting chairman Marco Rubio.
Rubio said the evidence of Russian mediation was ‘unforgettable’, but he also thanked the FBI for ‘their acceptance and willingness to rely on’ Steele Dossier ‘without checking the methodology or sourcing.’
First Chamber Leader Mitch McConnell said “politicians need to take special care not to fall prey to foreign influence efforts, to reinforce disinformation, or to politicize the attacks of our opponents on us” and said that the purpose of foreign efforts is to sow division.
(Updates with additional details from report everywhere)
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