Intelligence Officials Testify Before Senate on Russian Hacking

Top U.S. intelligence officers testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday to discuss the consensus view that the government of Russia was involved in election-related hacking that officials believe was intended to help President-elect Donald Trump.

The officials made it clear that Russia was undoubtedly involved in the cybersecurity breaches related to the presidential election.

"We stand actually more resolutely on the strength of that statement than we did on the 7th of October," said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

However, they avoided delivering policy prescriptions, such as whether to declare the attacks "acts of war" or detailing what responses are appropriate.

Trump will be briefed Friday by directors of the FBI, CIA and the director of national intelligence. He has consistently expressed doubts about the accuracy of the intelligence community's claims that Russia was involved in the election he won.

The President-elect even approvingly cited Julian Assange on Wednesday, the controversial founder of WikiLeaks, who denied that Russia was the source of private emails of Democratic National Committee officials and a senior member of Hillary Clinton's campaign staff that the publisher made public.

Asked about his assessment of Assange, Clapper noted that WikiLeaks' work presents a serious challenge to the intelligence community's ability to do its job.

“I don’t think those of us in the intelligence community have a whole lot of respect for [Assange]," he said.

As is common, senators from both parties took the opportunity to appear on TV to make partisan points. Democrats pressed the intelligence officers to comment on the president-elect's dismissal of their view on the origins of the hacks, which they view as undermining trust in America institutions. Republicans raised doubts about whether the intentions of the Russian government could be confidently discerned by the intelligence community.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican who has been notably critical of Trump, took a less partisan turn when he asked his questions. He criticized President Obama's recent announced sanctions as a weak response to Russian hacking, comparing them to "throwing a pebble."

"I want to throw a rock," he said.

But he also took his own party to task, and Trump in particular, for downplaying the risks raised by foreign interference in an election. He pointed out that it didn't seem at all that Trump was a target of any election-related hacks, but in the future China or a Iran might choose to target the Republican Party in elections.

"When one political party is compromised, we're all compromised," Graham said.

At the end of his questioning, he directed comments directly to the President-elect and praised the intelligence community.

"Mr. Trump, when you listen to these people, you can be skeptical, but they are the best among us," he said.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand suggested in her questioning that political party systems may count as "critical infrastructure," which the Department of Homeland Security defines as "the essential services that underpin American society and serve as the backbone of our nation's economy, security, and health." This would imply that they should be a much greater focus of national security efforts than they currently are.

Watch the testimony below:

Photo credit: Jay Godwin