{"id":1062,"date":"2016-12-18T17:59:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-18T17:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/democrats.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/18\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/"},"modified":"2024-05-23T20:19:30","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T20:19:30","slug":"dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/","title":{"rendered":"DNC Chair: Independent Congressional Investigation Needed on Russian Election Hacking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>WASHINGTON<\/strong>&nbsp;&ndash; DNC Interim Chair Donna Brazile today&nbsp;called on&nbsp;Congress&nbsp;to launch&nbsp;a thorough,&nbsp;independent,&nbsp;and bipartisan investigation into&nbsp;the Russian&nbsp;government&rsquo;s unprecedented interference in the 2016 election. &nbsp;The intelligence community concluded that the Russian government&nbsp;orchestrated a&nbsp;series of&nbsp;cyberattacks&nbsp;on&nbsp;campaign committees and organizations over the past two years&nbsp;and used stolen information to influence&nbsp;both&nbsp;the Presidential campaign and Congressional races&nbsp; over the past two years.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Unfortunately, there is still much that we do not know about the motives, methods and specific objectives of the Russian government, and the reaction of our own government.&nbsp;&nbsp;Without that understanding, our country will be left&nbsp;vulnerable to attacks in future elections. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What we do know is that these intrusions were not just &ldquo;hacks&rdquo; &ndash; they were attacks on the United States by a foreign power, and they must be treated as such.&nbsp;As Chair&nbsp;of the Democratic National Committee&mdash;one of the main victims of the Russian attacks&mdash;I ask&nbsp;that&nbsp;you support and provide any needed assistance to an independent, bipartisan investigation of the attacks that includes public hearings.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>There have been news reports in recent days about Russia&rsquo;s meticulous plans and Vladimir Putin&rsquo;s personal involvement in directing how stolen material was leaked.&nbsp;&nbsp;Among the questions Brazile is requesting that Congress investigate and answer are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What was the intent of the Russian government?<\/li>\n<li>When did related Russian activities in the United States begin and end?<\/li>\n<li>What other organizations or individuals were targeted?<\/li>\n<li>When and how were leaders in Congress briefed on Russia&rsquo;s role in these attacks?<\/li>\n<li>When and how were campaigns, candidates and political organizations briefed on these attacks?<\/li>\n<li>How effective was our government in detecting and investigating these activities?<\/li>\n<li>What options&nbsp;are&nbsp;available to&nbsp;our government and political institutions to&nbsp;protect&nbsp;our&nbsp;elections from&nbsp;cyberattacks and&nbsp;foreign influence?<\/li>\n<li>What steps were taken to protect the country once the attacks were detected?<\/li>\n<li>What more could have been done by our government to protect the election from this cyberattack and hack?<\/li>\n<li>How can our government better assist political organizations, non-profits, corporations and other non-government entities in preventing these intrusions in the future?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The full text of Brazile&rsquo;s letter is below:<\/p>\n<p>Dear Speaker Ryan:<\/p>\n<p>I write to request that Congress&nbsp;launch&nbsp;a thorough,&nbsp;independent,&nbsp;and bipartisan investigation on the Russian&nbsp;government&rsquo;s unprecedented interference in the 2016 election.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By now Americans know beyond any reasonable doubt that the Russian government orchestrated a&nbsp;series of&nbsp;cyberattacks&nbsp;on&nbsp;campaign committees and organizations over the past two years&nbsp;and used stolen information to influence&nbsp;both&nbsp;the Presidential campaign and Congressional races. &nbsp;On October 7, the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security made public the consensus view of the seventeen elements of the U.S. Intelligence Community, expressing with confidence &#8220;that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S.&nbsp;persons and institutions, including from U.S.&nbsp;political organizations,&rdquo; and &#8220;that only Russia&#39;s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.&rdquo; &nbsp;The Director of National Intelligence confirmed on December 16, 2016 that the agencies continue to stand by that assessment.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, after&nbsp;an exhaustive investigation, this week the&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;reported on &#8220;a well-documented conclusion that Moscow carried out a meticulously planned series of attacks and information releases devised to interfere in the 2016 presidential race.&rdquo; &nbsp;Furthermore,&nbsp;NBC reported&nbsp;that U.S. intelligence officials have&nbsp;a&nbsp;&ldquo;high&nbsp;level of&nbsp;confidence&rdquo; that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in these attacks, including providing direction on how the stolen material was leaked.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, there is still much that we do not know about the motives, methods and specific objectives of the Russian government, and the reaction of our own government.&nbsp;&nbsp;Without that understanding, our country will be left&nbsp;vulnerable to attacks in future elections. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What we do know is that these intrusions were not just &ldquo;hacks&rdquo; &ndash; they were attacks on the United States by a foreign power, and they must be treated as such.&nbsp;As Chair&nbsp;of the Democratic National Committee&mdash;one of the main victims of the Russian attacks&mdash;I ask&nbsp;that&nbsp;you support and provide any needed assistance to an independent, bipartisan investigation of the attacks that includes public hearings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Among the questions we urge&nbsp;this investigation&nbsp;to explore and&nbsp;seek to&nbsp;answer are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What was the intent of the Russian government?<\/li>\n<li>When did related Russian activities in the United States begin and end?<\/li>\n<li>What other organizations or individuals were targeted?<\/li>\n<li>When and how were leaders in Congress briefed on Russia&rsquo;s role in these attacks?<\/li>\n<li>When and how were campaigns, candidates and political organizations briefed on these attacks?<\/li>\n<li>How effective was our government in detecting and investigating these activities?<\/li>\n<li>What options&nbsp;are&nbsp;available to&nbsp;our government and political institutions to&nbsp;protect&nbsp;our&nbsp;elections from&nbsp;cyberattacks and&nbsp;foreign influence?<\/li>\n<li>What steps were taken to protect the country once the attacks were detected?<\/li>\n<li>What more could have been done by our government to protect the election from this cyberattack and hack?<\/li>\n<li>How can our government better assist political organizations, non-profits, corporations and other non-government entities in preventing these intrusions in the future?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In defeat and when mistakes have been made, our country has a proud, honored and timeless tradition of coming together and rising above partisan politics to determine the truth, learn from&nbsp;the experience, and become&nbsp;stronger&nbsp;as a nation. &nbsp;We hope that&nbsp;Congress&nbsp;will undertake this important work as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely,<\/p>\n<p>Donna Brazile<\/p>\n<p>Interim Chair, Democratic National Committee<\/p>\n<p>CC:<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Mitch McConnell<\/p>\n<p>Senate Majority Leader<\/p>\n<p>United States Senate<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Charles Schumer<\/p>\n<p>Senate Minority Leader<\/p>\n<p>United States Senate<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Nancy Pelosi<\/p>\n<p>House Minority Leader<\/p>\n<p>United States House of Representatives<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Kevin McCarthy<\/p>\n<p>House Majority Leader<\/p>\n<p>United States House of Representatives<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Steny Hoyer<\/p>\n<p>House Minority Whip<\/p>\n<p>United States House of Representatives<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Steve Scalise<\/p>\n<p>House Majority Whip<\/p>\n<p>United States House of Representatives<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Richard Burr<\/p>\n<p>Chairman<\/p>\n<p>Senate Select Committee on Intelligence<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Dianne Feinstein<\/p>\n<p>Vice Chairman<\/p>\n<p>Senate Select Committee on Intelligence<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Devin Nunes<\/p>\n<p>Chairman<\/p>\n<p>House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Adam Schiff<\/p>\n<p>Ranking Member<\/p>\n<p>House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Charles Grassley<\/p>\n<p>Chairman<\/p>\n<p>Senate Committee on the Judiciary<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Patrick Leahy<\/p>\n<p>Ranking Member<\/p>\n<p>Senate Committee on the Judiciary<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Robert Goodlatte<\/p>\n<p>Chairman<\/p>\n<p>House Committee on the Judiciary<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable John Conyers, Jr.<\/p>\n<p>Ranking Member<\/p>\n<p>House Committee on the Judiciary<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Ron Johnson<\/p>\n<p>Chairman<\/p>\n<p>Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Thomas Carper<\/p>\n<p>Ranking Member<\/p>\n<p>Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Jason Chaffetz<\/p>\n<p>Chairman<\/p>\n<p>House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Elijah Cummings<\/p>\n<p>Ranking Member<\/p>\n<p>House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable John McCain<\/p>\n<p>Chairman<\/p>\n<p>Senate Committee on Armed Services<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Jack Reed<\/p>\n<p>Ranking Member<\/p>\n<p>Senate Committee on Armed Services<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Mac Thornberry<\/p>\n<p>Chairman<\/p>\n<p>House Committee on Armed Services<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Honorable Adam Smith<\/p>\n<p>Ranking Member<\/p>\n<p>House Committee on Armed Services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON&nbsp;&ndash; DNC Interim Chair Donna Brazile today&nbsp;called on&nbsp;Congress&nbsp;to launch&nbsp;a thorough,&nbsp;independent,&nbsp;and bipartisan investigation into&nbsp;the Russian&nbsp;government&rsquo;s unprecedented interference in the 2016 election. &nbsp;The intelligence community concluded that the Russian government&nbsp;orchestrated a&nbsp;series of&nbsp;cyberattacks&nbsp;on&nbsp;campaign committees and organizations over the past two years&nbsp;and used stolen information to influence&nbsp;both&nbsp;the Presidential campaign and Congressional races&nbsp; over the past two years. &ldquo;Unfortunately, there <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>DNC Chair: Independent Congressional Investigation Needed on Russian Election Hacking - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-18T17:59:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-23T20:19:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/\",\"name\":\"DNC Chair: Independent Congressional Investigation Needed on Russian Election Hacking - Democrats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-18T17:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-23T20:19:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"DNC Chair: Independent Congressional Investigation Needed on Russian Election Hacking\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/\",\"name\":\"Democrats\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564\",\"name\":\"Claire DePree\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Claire DePree\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/author\/depreec\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"DNC Chair: Independent Congressional Investigation Needed on Russian Election Hacking - Democrats","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_site_name":"Democrats","article_published_time":"2016-12-18T17:59:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-23T20:19:30+00:00","author":"Claire DePree","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Claire DePree","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/","name":"DNC Chair: Independent Congressional Investigation Needed on Russian Election Hacking - Democrats","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-12-18T17:59:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-23T20:19:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/dnc-chair-independent-congressional-investigation-needed-on-russian-election-hacking\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DNC Chair: Independent Congressional Investigation Needed on Russian Election Hacking"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/","name":"Democrats","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564","name":"Claire DePree","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Claire DePree"},"url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/author\/depreec\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1033265,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions\/1033265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}