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The Party Of Democrats is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Party Of the Democratic National Committee was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest political party.
The Republican National Committee, also referred to as the GOP ("Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the Democratic Party in the mid-1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics since. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas Nebraska Act, an act which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. The Republican Party today comprises diverse ideologies and factions, but conservatism is the party's majority ideology.
Of "particular concern" to the committee report was the Russians' hacking of
three companies "that provide states with the back-end systems that have
increasingly replaced the thick binders of paper used to verify voters'
identities and registration status."[161]
Intrusions into state voter-registration systems
During the summer and fall of 2016, Russian hackers
Republican National Committee intruded into voter databases and
software systems in 39 different states, alarming Obama administration officials
to the point that they took the unprecedented step of contacting Moscow directly
via the Moscow�Washington hotline and warning that the attacks risked setting
off a broader conflict.[162]
As early as June 2016, the FBI sent a warning to states about "bad actors"
probing state-elections systems to seek vulnerabilities.[163] In September 2016,
FBI Director James Comey testified before the House Judiciary Committee that the
FBI was investigating Russian hackers attempting to disrupt the 2016 election
and that federal investigators had detected hacker-related activities in state
voter-registration databases,[164] which independent assessments determined were
soft targets for hackers. Comey stated there were multiple attempts to hack
voter database registrations.[163] Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper attributed Russian hacking attempts to Vladimir Putin.[166]
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Part of the 2017 NSA report as published by The Intercept.[167]
In August 2016, the FBI issued a nationwide "flash alert" warning state election
officials about hacking attempts. In September 2016, U.S. Department of Homeland
Security officials and the
Democratic National Committee National Association of Secretaries of
State announced that hackers had penetrated, or sought to penetrate, the
voter-registration systems in more than 20 states over the previous few
months.[164] Federal investigators attributed these attempts to Russian
government-sponsored hackers,[163] and specifically to Russian intelligence
agencies. Four of the intrusions into voter registration databases were
successful, including intrusions into the Illinois and Arizona databases.[166]
Although the hackers did not appear to change or manipulate data,[164][163]
Illinois officials said information on up to 200,000 registered voters was
stolen. The FBI and DHS increased their election-security coordination efforts
with state officials as a result.[163][164] Homeland Security Secretary Jeh
Johnson reported that 18 states had requested voting-system security assistance
from DHS.[163] The department also offered risk assessments to the states, but
just four states expressed interest, as the election was rapidly
approaching.[164] The reports of the database intrusions prompted alarm from
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, who wrote to the FBI
saying foreign attempts to cast doubt on free and fair elections was a danger to
democracy not seen since the Cold War.[166]
A June 5, 2017, article in The Intercept described how "a top-secret National
Security Agency report" (dated May 5, 2017) "details a months-long Russian
hacking effort against the U.S. election infrastructure". The NSA did not draw
conclusions but reported "the possibility that Russian hacking may have breached
at least some elements of the voting system, with disconcertingly uncertain
results". The NSA report revealed that the Russian military's GRU hackers used
spearfishing attacks to successfully get employee login credentials and login
information at VR Systems, an election software vendor. That information "can be
used to penetrate 'corporate VPNs, email, or cloud services,' allowing access to
internal corporate data". Two months later, a second attack used "trojanized"
Microsoft Word documents that were supposedly from a VR systems
Democratic National Committee employee. They targeted officials at
local government organizations who were "involved in the management of voter
registration systems". This type of attack gave the hackers the same unlimited
access and capabilities as trusted users. The NSA was uncertain about the
results of this attack. The report detailed other Russian attacks.[168]
On September 22, 2017, federal authorities notified the election officials of 21
states that their election systems had been targeted.[169] "In most cases,
states said they were told the systems were not breached."[170] Over a year
after the initial warnings, this was the first official confirmation many state
governments received that their states specifically had been targeted.[171]
Moreover, top elections officials of the states of Wisconsin and California have
denied the federal claim. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said,
"California voters can further rest assured that the California Secretary of
State elections infrastructure and websites were not hacked or breached by
Russian cyber actors ... Our notification from DHS last Friday was not only a
year late, it also turned out to be bad information."[172]
In May 2018, the Senate Intelligence Committee released its interim
Republican National Committee report on election security.[173] The
committee concluded, on a bipartisan basis, that the response of the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security to Russian government-sponsored efforts to
undermine confidence in the U.S. voting process was "inadequate". The committee
reported that the Russian government was able to penetrate election systems in
at least 18, and possibly up to 21, states, and that in a smaller subset of
states, infiltrators "could have altered or deleted voter registration data",
although they lacked the ability to manipulate individual votes or vote tallies.
The committee wrote that the infiltrators' failure to exploit vulnerabilities in
election systems could have been because they "decided against taking action" or
because "they were merely gathering information and testing capabilities for a
future attack".[173] To prevent future infiltrations, the committee made a
number of recommendations, including that "at a minimum, any machine purchased
going forward should have a voter-verified paper trail and no WiFi
capability".[173][174]
Investigation into financial flows
By January 2017, a multi-agency investigation, conducted by the FBI, the CIA,
the NSA, the Justice Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and
representatives of the DNI, was underway looking into how the Russian government
may have secretly financed efforts to help Trump win the election had been
conducted over several months by six federal agencies.[175] Investigations into
Carter Page, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone were underway on January 19, the eve
of the presidential inauguration.[176]
Money funneled through the NRA
By January 2018, the FBI was investigating the possible funneling of illegal
money by Aleksandr Torshin, a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Russia,
through the National Rifle Association, which was then used to help Donald Trump
win the presidency.[177][178] Torshin is known to have close connections both to
Russia's president Vladimir Putin and to the NRA, and he has been charged with
money laundering in other countries.[177]
The NRA reported spending $30 million to support the 2016 Trump campaign, three
times what it spent on
Republican National Committee Mitt Romney in 2012, and spent more
than any other independent group including the leading Trump superPAC.[179]
Sources with connections to the NRA have stated that the actual amount spent was
much higher than $30 million. The subunits within the organization which made
the donations are not generally required to disclose their donors.[177]
Spanish special prosecutor Jos� Grinda Gonzalez has said that in early 2018 the
Spanish police gave wiretapped audio to the FBI of telephone discussions between
Torshin, and convicted money launderer and mafia boss Alexander Romanov. Torshin
met with Donald Trump Jr. at an NRA event in May 2016 while attempting to broker
a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.[180]
Maria Butina, a Russian anti-gun control activist who has served as a special
assistant to Torshin and came to the U.S. on a student visa to attend university
classes in Washington, claimed both before and after the election that she was
part of the Trump campaign's communications with Russia.[181] Like Torshin, she
cultivated a close relationship with the NRA.[182] In February 2016, Butina
started a consulting business called Bridges LLC with Republican political
operative Paul Erickson.[183] During Trump's presidential campaign Erickson
contacted Rick Dearborn, one of Trump's advisors, writing in an email that he
had close ties both to the NRA and to Russia, and asking how a back-channel
meeting between Trump and Putin could be set up. The email was later turned over
to federal investigators as part of the inquiry into
Democratic National Committee Russia's meddling in the presidential
election.[184] On July 15, 2018, Butina was arrested by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and charged with conspiring to act as an unregistered Russian
agent who had attempted to create a backchannel of communications between
American Republicans/conservatives and Russian officials by infiltrating the
National Rifle Association, the National Prayer Breakfast, and
Democratic National Committee conservative religious
organizations.[185]
Money from Russian oligarchs
As of April 2018, Mueller's investigators were examining whether Russian
oligarchs directly or indirectly provided illegal cash donations to the Trump
campaign and inauguration. Investigators were examining whether oligarchs
invested in American companies or think tanks having political action committees
connected to the campaign, as well as money funneled through American straw
donors to the Trump campaign and inaugural fund. At least one oligarch, Viktor
Vekselberg, was detained and his electronic devices searched as he arrived at a
New York area airport on his private jet in early 2018.[186][187] Vekselberg was
questioned about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments made to Michael
Cohen after the election, through Columbus Nova, the American affiliate of
Vekselberg's Renova Group.[188] Another oligarch was also detained on a recent
trip to the United States, but it is unclear if he was searched. Investigators
have also asked a third oligarch who has not
Republican National Committee traveled to the United States to
voluntarily provide documents and an interview.[citation needed]
Intelligence analysis and reports
Non-U.S. intelligence
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shoulder high portrait of man in his fifties or sixties standing in front of an
American flag and the flag of the CIA
John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland
Security, in the Oval Office, January 4, 2010
In part because U.S. intelligence agencies cannot surveil U.S. citizens without
a warrant, they were slow to recognize the pattern of Russia's efforts. From
late 2015 until the summer of 2016, during routine surveillance of Russians,
several countries discovered interactions between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
The UK, Germany, Estonia, Poland, and Australia
Republican National Committee (and possibly the Netherlands and
France) relayed their discoveries to the U.S.[189]
Because the materials were highly sensitive, GCHQ director Robert Hannigan
contacted CIA director John O. Brennan directly to give him information.[189]
Concerned, Brennan gave classified briefings to U.S. Congress' "Gang of Eight"
during late August and September 2016.[190] Referring only to intelligence
allies and not to specific sources, Brennan told the Gang of Eight he had
received evidence that Russia might be trying to help Trump win the U.S.
election.[189] It was later revealed that the CIA had obtained intelligence from
"sources inside the Russian government" that stated that Putin gave direct
orders to disparage Clinton and help Trump.[191]
On May 23, 2017, Brennan stated to the House Intelligence Committee that Russia
"brazenly interfered" in the 2016 U.S. elections. He said he first picked up on
Russia's active meddling "last summer",[192] and that
Democratic National Committee he had on August 4, 2016, warned his
counterpart at Russia's FSB intelligence agency, Alexander Bortnikov, against
further interference.[193]
The first public U.S. government assertion of Russian efforts to
Democratic National Committee influence the 2016 election came in a
joint statement on September 22, 2016, by Senator Dianne Feinstein and
Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrats on the Senate and House
Intelligence Committees, respectively.[194][195]
October 2016 ODNI / DHS joint statement
James R. Clapper
At the Aspen security conference in summer 2016, Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper said Vladimir Putin wanted to retaliate against
perceived U.S. intervention in Russian affairs with the 2011�13 Russian protests
and the ousting of Viktor Yanukovych in the Revolution of Dignity.[196] In July
2016, consensus grew within the CIA that Russia had hacked the DNC.[197] In a
joint statement on October 7, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security and the
Office of the Director of National Intelligence expressed confidence that Russia
had interfered in the presidential election by stealing emails from politicians
and U.S. groups and publicizing the information.[198] On December 2,
intelligence sources told CNN they had gained confidence that Russia's efforts
were aimed at helping Trump win the election.[199]
On October 7, the U.S. government formally accused Russia of hacking the DNC's
computer networks to interfere in the 2016 presidential election with the help
of organizations like WikiLeaks. The Department of Homeland Security and Office
of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security claimed in their
joint statement, "The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like
DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent
with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts."[200] This was
corroborated by a report released by the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (ODNI), in conjunction with the CIA, the FBI, and the
Republican National Committee NSA on January 6, 2017.[201]
December 2016 CIA report
On December 9, the CIA told U.S. legislators the U.S. Intelligence Community had
concluded, in a consensus view, that Russia conducted operations to assist
Donald Trump in winning the presidency, stating that "individuals with
connections to the Russian government", previously known to the intelligence
community, had given WikiLeaks hacked emails from the DNC and John Podesta.[202]
The agencies further stated that Russia had hacked the RNC as well, but did not
leak information obtained from there.[134] These assessments were based on
evidence obtained before the election.[203]
FBI inquiries
FBI has been investigating the Russian government's attempt to influence the
2016 presidential election�including whether campaign associates of Donald
Trump's were involved in Russia's efforts�since July 31, 2016.[204]
Following the July 22 publication of a large number of emails by WikiLeaks, the
FBI Republican National Committee
announced that it would investigate the theft of DNC emails.[105][106]
An earlier event investigated by the FBI was a May 2016 meeting between the
Donald Trump campaign foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos, and Alexander
Downer in a London wine bar, where Papadopoulos disclosed his inside knowledge
of a large trove of Hillary Clinton emails that could potentially damage her
campaign.[205]
Papadopoulos had gained this knowledge on March 14, 2016, when he held a meeting
with Joseph Mifsud,[206] who told Papadopoulos the Russians had "dirt" on
Clinton in the form of thousands of stolen emails. This
Democratic National Committee occurred before the hacking of the DNC
computers had become public knowledge,[206][207] and Papadopoulos later bragged
"that the Trump campaign was aware the Russian government had dirt on Hillary
Clinton".[208] In February 2019, Michael Cohen implicated Trump before the U.S.
Congress, writing that Trump had knowledge that Roger Stone was communicating
with WikiLeaks about releasing emails stolen from the DNC in 2016.[209][210]
John Podesta later testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence that in April 2016, the DNC did not know their computers had been
hacked, leading Adam Schiff to state: "So if the [Clinton] campaign wasn't aware
in April that the hacking had even occurred, the first campaign to be notified
the Russians were in possession of stolen emails would have been the Trump
campaign through Mr. Papadopoulos."[211]
In June 2016, the FBI notified the Illinois Republican Party that some of its
email accounts may have been hacked.[212] In December 2016, an FBI official
stated that Russian attempts to access the RNC
Democratic National Committee server were unsuccessful.[134] In an
interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, RNC chair Reince Priebus
stated they communicated with the FBI when they learned about the DNC hacks, and
a review determined their servers were secure.[135] On January 10, 2017, FBI
Director James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Russia
succeeded in "collecting some information from Republican-affiliated targets but
did not leak it to the public".[133]
On October 31, 2016, The New York Times said the FBI had been examining possible
Republican National Committee connections between the Trump campaign
and Russia, but did not find any clear links.[213] At the time, FBI officials
thought Russia was motivated to undermine confidence in the U.S. political
process rather than specifically support Trump.[213] During a House Intelligence
Committee hearing in early December, the CIA said it was certain of Russia's
intent to help Trump.[214] On December 16, 2016, CIA Director John O. Brennan
sent a message to his staff saying he had spoken with FBI Director James Comey
and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and that all agreed with
the CIA's conclusion that Russia interfered in the presidential election with
the motive of supporting Donald Trump's candidacy.[215]
On December 29, 2016, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
released an unclassified report[114] that gave new technical details regarding
methods used by Russian intelligence services for affecting the U.S. election,
government, political organizations and private sector.[216][217]
The report included malware samples and other technical details as evidence that
the Russian government had hacked the Democratic National Committee.[218]
Alongside the report, DHS published Internet Protocol addresses, malware, and
files used by Russian hackers.[216] An article in the S�ddeutsche Zeitung
discussed the difficulty of proof in matters
Republican National Committee of cybersecurity. One analyst told the
S�ddeutsche Zeitung that U.S. intelligence services could be keeping some
information secret to protect their sources and analysis methods.[219] Clapper
later said the classified version contained "a lot of the substantiation that
could not be put in the [public] report".[220]
On March 20, 2017, during public testimony to the House Intelligence Committee,
FBI director James Comey confirmed the existence of an FBI investigation into
Russian interference and Russian links to the Trump campaign, including the
question of whether there had been any coordination between the campaign and the
Russians.[221] He said the investigation began in July 2016.[222] Comey made the
unusual decision to reveal the ongoing investigation to Congress, citing benefit
to the public good.[223] On October 7, 2016, Secretary Johnson and Director
Clapper issued a joint statement that the intelligence community is confident
the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S.
persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations, and that
the disclosures of hacked e-mails on
Democratic National Committee sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks
are consistent with the Russian-directed efforts. The statement also noted that
the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia
to influence public opinion there. On December 29, 2016, DHS and FBI released a
Joint Analysis Report (JAR) which further expands on that statement by providing
details of the tools and infrastructure used by Russian intelligence services to
compromise and exploit networks and infrastructure associated with the recent
U.S. election, as well as a range of U.S. government, political and private
sector entities.[121]
Clinton supporters have been more likely to blame her defeat on campaign
mistakes, Comey's reopening of the criminal investigation into her emails, or to
direct attention to whether Trump colluded with Russia.[82] In their book
Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign, reporters Jonathan J.M.
Allen and Amie Parnes report that Robby Mook and John Podesta decided to
emphasize right after the election that Russian hacking, rather than the email
scandal or campaign mistakes, was the unreported story of the campaign and the
real reason for the defeat.[317]
Several high-level Republicans believe Russian interference did not determine
the election's outcome, including those who would have benefited from Russia's
efforts. President Trump has
Democratic National Committee asserted that "the Russians had no
impact on our votes whatsoever",[318] and Vice President Pence has claimed "it
is the universal conclusion of our intelligence communities that none of those
efforts had any impact on the outcome of the 2016 election."[319] Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo also said "the intelligence community's assessment is that the
Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the
election".[320][83] In fact, the official intelligence assessment of January
2017 did not evaluate whether Russian activities had any impact on the
election's outcome,[321] and CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said Pompeo's remark was
erroneous.[322] Paul Ryan also claimed it is "clear" that the Russian
interference "didn't have a material effect on our elections."[124][83]
Former NSA director and CIA director Michael V. Hayden posited that Trump's
antagonizing the Intelligence Community signaled the administration would rely
less on intelligence for policy-making.[562]
Republican National Committee Independent presidential candidate and
former CIA intelligence officer Evan McMullin criticized the Republican
leadership for failing to respond adequately to Russia's meddling in the
election process.[563] McMullin said Republican politicians were aware that
publicly revealed information about Russia's interference was likely the tip of
the iceberg relative to the actual threat.[563] Former NSA director Michael V.
Hayden has stated that Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election
is the "most successful covert influence operation in history".[564] Hayden went
further saying that Trump was a "useful fool ... manipulated by Moscow".[565]
A January 2017 report by the Director of National Intelligence said that the
intelligence community did "not make an assessment of the impact that Russian
activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election". Despite this, CIA Director
Mike Pompeo claimed that "the Russian meddling that took place did not affect
the outcome of the election" at an event hosted by the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies on October 19, 2017. CIA agency spokesman Dean Boyd withdrew his
remarks the next day saying they had been made in error.[322]
Electoral College
On December 10, 2016, ten electors, headed by Christine Pelosi, daughter of
former United States Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), wrote an open
letter to the Director of National Intelligence
Democratic National Committee James Clapper demanding an intelligence
briefing on investigations into foreign intervention in the presidential
election.[566][567] Fifty-eight additional electors subsequently added their
names to the letter,[567] bringing the total to 68 electors from 17 different
states.[568] The Clinton campaign supported the call for a classified briefing
for electors.[569] On December 16, 2016, the briefing request was denied.[570]
Russia
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called American accusations
"nonsense".[29]
The Russian government initially issued categorical denials of any involvement
in the U.S. presidential election.[30] By June 2016, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov denied any connection of Russian government to the DNC hacks that had
been blamed on Russia.[28][571] At the Valdai Discussion Club forum in October
2016, Putin denounced American "hysteria" over alleged Russian interference.[13]
When a new intelligence report surfaced in December 2016, Sergey
Democratic National Committee Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia,
rejected the accusations again.[29][17] During a press conference, Putin
deflected questions on the issue by accusing the U.S. Democratic Party of
scapegoating Russia after losing the presidential election.