FBI Director James Comey: No Evidence Russians Tried To Hack Donald Trump Campaign

FBI Director James Comey appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday to testify on Russia's role in cyberattacks related to the 2016 presidential election. It is his first time offering public comment on the attacks and on the election in which he played a frequently contentious role.

Comey appeared alongside John Brennan, the director of the CIA; James Clapper, the director of national intelligence; and Mike Rogers, director of national security.

As was made clear in a recent report from the intelligence community, Comey confirmed that Russia deliberately engaged in cyberattacks to help Hillary Clinton's campaign and to bolster Donald Trump's chances of securing the presidency.

But Comey also noted that, in addition to hacks of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta, the Russians appear to have hacked state-level data of the Republican Party, as well as historical databases of the Republican National Committee. However, Comey noted that there has been no evidence that Trump's campaign faced any hacking attempts.

In a statement given to the press on Friday, Trump said that the RNC had been targeted by cyberattacks, but these failed because of strong cybersecurity measures.

According to the testimony, the DNC has not allowed the FBI to access its servers, despite multiple requests. Instead, the DNC had its servers reviewed by a private investigative firm, which Comey called "highly respected," and the FBI has access to that review.

Comey also reported that, though there's no evidence vote tallies were altered by foreign hackers, the Russians subversively accessed voter registrations; at this time, the FBI has no information on the intentions of those hacks.

Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, pressed the FBI director on whether the agency has investigated the reported connections between Russia and members of Trump's campaign.

"I would never comment on investigations, whether we have one or not, in an open forum like this," Comey responded. "So I can't answer one way or the other."

"The irony of your making that statement here I cannot avoid,” said Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with the Democratic Party, not-so-subtley referring to the FBI director's choice to announce two weeks prior to the election that his agency discovered emails related to the investigation of Clinton.

"Well, we sometimes think differently about closed investigations," Comey responded.

Photo credit: Rich Girard via Flickr