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Here’s a roundup of What We Know about the Russia investigations on Wednesday. This memorandum, circulated internally at NPR and now available to you, offers guidance about what our correspondents are reporting about this ongoing story and the coverage of other news sources. (Feedback? Let us know: nprpolitics@npr.org.)
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Do You Want The Bad News First … Or The Bad News?
The bad news is America’s voting machines are eminently hackable and its elections systems are vulnerable to cyberattack, a computer science expert told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday.
But the *bad* news is that there’s every reason to expect that foreign — especially Russian — cyber-mischief could return in this year’s election, next year’s election and the 2020 presidential race, the assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division warned.
But the baaaad news is that state elections officials are frustrated with what they call a lack of information and a lack of meaningful support from the Department of Homeland Security, they told the Senate committee. They complain that the designation by DHS of the national elections system as “critical infrastructure” has meant, in practical terms, nothing.
But the really bad news is there is nothing like consensus about how to address any of this. Wednesday’s hearings made clear that partisan tension between Republicans and Democrats, friction between state and federal officials and America’s structural cyber-weakness all mean that foreign meddling and election integrity will remain major problem for years to come.
Looking Back
Members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees tried to emphasize in their parallel hearings that despite Russian cyberattacks last year against 21 state elections systems — and possibly more — no votes were changed. So, there’s that.
And former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson detailed to the House committee how badly the 2016 mischief caught the Obama administration off guard — and how difficult it was to publicly attribute the mischief to Russia.
More from NPR’s Brian Naylor: “One of the candidates, Johnson said, not naming but clearly referring to Donald Trump, ‘was predicting that the election was going to be rigged,’ Johnson said, ‘and so we were concerned that by making the statement, we might in and of itself be challenging the integrity of the election process.’ ”
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Top G-Man: ‘Great Many Folks’ Detailed To Special Counsel
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe told a House Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday that Robert Mueller is getting the support he needs from the FBI in terms of people and other resources, NPR’s Carrie Johnson reports. McCabe acknowledged that as the Bureau moves on without fired former Director James Comey and awaits the confirmation of Trump nominee Christopher Wray, “The FBI is in a time of transition and it has not been easy on any of us.”
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Speaking Of The Special Counsel
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The Big Picture: Trumpprochement In Tatters
Russia canceled a meeting planned this week with a top State Department diplomat, the Associated Press reports. The announcement followed the imposition of new Treasury Department sanctions on Russians involved with the invasion of Ukraine, and the Senate vote endorsing new sanctions against Russia.
“The situation is not conducive to holding a round of this dialogue,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Wednesday, as he has before, that if Russia’s goal was to sow chaos in the United States, foment political division and force Washington to expend time and energy — it succeeded.
In terms of relieving American economic pressure, however, removing U.S. military forces from Eastern Europe or ameliorating support for Ukraine and NATO? If the Russians thought they could get there, they haven’t. And one of Trump’s key foreign policy promises — establishing better ties with Russia in Syria and elsewhere — also is dead in the water.
— Phil Ewing, national security editor
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