The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding its first hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, in which Sen. Marco Rubio revealed hacking attempts on his former campaign staff
Last Updated Mar 30, 2017 4:11 PM EDT
Members of the U. S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence launched into their first day of hearings on Russian interference in the 2016 election Thursday, answering months of calls from Democrats and some Republicans for a Capitol Hill probe.
Democrats for months have called for a probe into any Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, but the Republican-controlled intelligence committees are just now beginning to hold public hearings. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio revealed in the hearing that an IP located in Russia attempted to hack former members of his presidential campaign in July 2016, and as recently as Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. The attempts were unsuccessful, said Rubio, refusing to address claims that Russians interfered with his bid for the Republican nomination for president.
Witnesses for the hearing on Russian tactics of disinformation and influence campaigns include retired Gen. Keith Alexander, former director of the National Security Agency, along with Kevin Mandia, chief executive officer of cybersecurity company FireEye, and Thomas Rid, professor at the Department of War Studies at King’s College in London.
The afternoon hearing comes on the heels of a New York Times report that a pair of White House officials helped provide Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, with intelligence reports showing President Donald Trump and his associates were included in foreign surveillance sweeps by American spy agencies. Some critics fear Nunes is too close to Mr. Trump to handle investigations into any Russian interference into the presidential election.
During an earlier hearing on the same subject Thursday, cybersecurity experts told the Senate panel that Russia had every ability to create fake social media accounts by mimicking profiles of voters in key election states and precincts in the 2016 election, and use a mix of bots and real people to push propaganda from state-controlled media outlets like Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik.
Mandia said it’s tough to differentiate between bots and humans as bots become smarter, and the U. S. can’t fight Russia with cyber tactics alone.
“It just feels like we’re in a glass house throwing rocks at a mud hud,” he said.
FBI Director James Comey revealed last week the FBI is investigating any possible ties between President Donald Trump and Russia.
Follow our live-blog from earlier below.
“It just feels like we’re in a glass house throwing rocks at a mud hud,” he said.
“Could they have drastically changed the outcome of the election?” Manchin said.
“I have no idea,” Mandia responded.
“I think it’s remarkably consistent,” Mandia said.
“I think that’s the most important program that’s out there, especially in counterterrorism,” Gen. Alexander said.
“You can’t always connect the dots,” Mandia said, but added, “It absolutely stretches credulity to think they were not involved.”
“I believe they were involved,” Gen. Alexander said.
“I believe they were involved as well,” Rid added.
Warner next asked if it was possible for the Russians to target voters at the precinct level with a network of bots.
Possible to target precinct levels with a botnet network for specific precincts?
Alexander: “I think it’s technically possible,” Gen. Alexander said, adding he couldn’t confirm how much that happened.
“The more polarized a society, the more vulnerable it is,” Thomas Rid said.
Russian intelligence operations by 2015 began combining the tools of hacking and leaking, targeting defense and diplomatic entities, Rid said.
Russia likes to use “unwitting” agents, Rid said, adding that Wikileaks, Twitter and “over-eager” journalists contributed to Russia’s efforts in 2016.
“What’s Russia trying to do, and why are they trying to do it?” he said.
Gen. Alexander said the U. S. can’t shy away from or ignore Russia.
“I believe we have to engage and confront,” he said.
“It is our view that the United States is going to continue to see these things happen,” Mandia said.
Mandia said the U. S. needs to know who is behind the hacking, which requires international cooperation. Only then can the U. S. determine a proportional response, he said.
