Russia influences election

[catarsiss]

I sometimes think that Russiagate is a planned attempt to divert attention from the Trump's real weak points: a strange political course, flirting with countries provoking world conflicts and violating human rights, personal interests of a businessperson and his real estate empire, turning the USA into the world's largest offshore (yeah), they are still following the Cold War topics. The U.S. Needs a post-Mueller reality check. Russia has no real influence other than nuclear weapons now.

[GreenGoo]

I am skeptical.

[Smoove_B]

More. Keep it up.

[Holman]

Let's check in for the firm pushback against Russia's attack on our democracy.

[Unagi]

Well, let's hope he catches some hell for saying "Russian Hoax" at the very least... right? I mean even his goddamn AG said as much....

so sick of this shit.

Also, of course he lied then above when he said they didn't talk about it. Breaking News.

[Holman]

Trump endorses Putin.

How... even...? The fact of the Russian attack isn't even a question. Trump is insisting that because he dodged conspiracy charges the Russian attack never even happened.

You do not got more venal, stupid, and traitorous than our president.

[Smoove_B]

I'm sure it was just a coincidence that Mitch McConnell blocked changes to election security after receiving donations.

"It's not surprising to me that Mitch McConnell is receiving these campaign contributions," the Brennan Center for Justice's Lawrence Norden told Sludge last month. "He seems single-handedly to be standing in the way of anything passing in Congress around election security, and that includes things that the vendors might want, like money for the states to replace antiquated equipment."

McConnell's actions seemed even more out of balance with his party, as the Senate Intelligence Committee⁠—led by Republicans⁠—released a report later on Thursday claiming Russians have targeted voting systems in all 50 states in 2016. Though there was no evidence votes were changed, in Illinois "Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data."

For $4K (on paper), no less. I can only imagine what's going on behind the scenes. But this is one of those situations where you'd think how it would look might cause someone to think about maybe not taking these donations, but nope. Not members of the GOP.

[LordMortis]

I'm sure it was just a coincidence that Mitch McConnell blocked changes to election security after receiving donations.

"It's not surprising to me that Mitch McConnell is receiving these campaign contributions," the Brennan Center for Justice's Lawrence Norden told Sludge last month. "He seems single-handedly to be standing in the way of anything passing in Congress around election security, and that includes things that the vendors might want, like money for the states to replace antiquated equipment."

McConnell's actions seemed even more out of balance with his party, as the Senate Intelligence Committee⁠—led by Republicans⁠—released a report later on Thursday claiming Russians have targeted voting systems in all 50 states in 2016. Though there was no evidence votes were changed, in Illinois "Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data."

For $4K (on paper), no less. I can only imagine what's going on behind the scenes. But this is one of those situations where you'd think how it would look might cause someone to think about maybe not taking these donations, but nope. Not members of the GOP.

While you are reading Newsweek about Russia and the Worst American of our lifetime

https://www.newsweek.com/company-russia ... ll-1397061

Rusal, the aluminum company partially owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, announced plans to invest around $200 million to build a new aluminum plant in Kentucky just months after the Trump administration removed it from the U.S. sanctions list.

The new aluminum plant, slated to be built in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will be the biggest new aluminum plant constructed in the U.S. in decades. Rusal will have a 40 percent stake in the facility.

"Rusal, one of the leading global aluminium producers, and Braidy Industries Inc., a U.S. base holding company which owns both Veloxint, an MIT-incubated lightweighting solutions company, and NanoAl, a Northwestern University incubated materials research and technology company, announce an intent to establish a joint project in Ashland, Kentucky, USA to produce flat-rolled aluminium products for the U.S. automotive industry," according to a company press release.

[Holman]

Link

[LawBeefaroni]

I'm sure it was just a coincidence that Mitch McConnell blocked changes to election security after receiving donations.

"It's not surprising to me that Mitch McConnell is receiving these campaign contributions," the Brennan Center for Justice's Lawrence Norden told Sludge last month. "He seems single-handedly to be standing in the way of anything passing in Congress around election security, and that includes things that the vendors might want, like money for the states to replace antiquated equipment."

McConnell's actions seemed even more out of balance with his party, as the Senate Intelligence Committee⁠—led by Republicans⁠—released a report later on Thursday claiming Russians have targeted voting systems in all 50 states in 2016. Though there was no evidence votes were changed, in Illinois "Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data."

For $4K (on paper), no less. I can only imagine what's going on behind the scenes. But this is one of those situations where you'd think how it would look might cause someone to think about maybe not taking these donations, but nope. Not members of the GOP.

While you are reading Newsweek about Russia and the Worst American of our lifetime

https://www.newsweek.com/company-russia ... ll-1397061

Rusal, the aluminum company partially owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, announced plans to invest around $200 million to build a new aluminum plant in Kentucky just months after the Trump administration removed it from the U.S. sanctions list.

The new aluminum plant, slated to be built in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will be the biggest new aluminum plant constructed in the U.S. in decades. Rusal will have a 40 percent stake in the facility.

"Rusal, one of the leading global aluminium producers, and Braidy Industries Inc., a U.S. base holding company which owns both Veloxint, an MIT-incubated lightweighting solutions company, and NanoAl, a Northwestern University incubated materials research and technology company, announce an intent to establish a joint project in Ashland, Kentucky, USA to produce flat-rolled aluminium products for the U.S. automotive industry," according to a company press release.

Don't forget the DOT projects he got via his DOT Secretary wife fair and square, either. Maybe the $200M from Russia was make good for making her sell her Vulcan Marterials (road pavers) stock.


These people are looting the country at unprecedented levels in both scale and flagrancy.

[malchior]

Think this is the best thread for this ... the wild story last night by former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne is crazy. He is claiming that agents reporting up to Peter Strok and James Comey sanctioned an operation where he was told to start a romantic relationship with Maria Butina to get information on Russian espionage. It is being met with intense skepticism and Comey has flat out denied it already. Cuomo also had him on for an interview last night where he seemed pretty coherent about it but it doesn't make sense. The FBI has a lot of tools that don't involve bringing in a civilian to romance a suspected Russian intelligence asset. It feels way too risky for them. My very uninformed guess is that the FBI used him where he volunteered and didn't direct him as described. Instead, he got enmeshed by her and her support network and ultimately the Russians have kompromat on him. They are now using him to push 'deep state' propaganda out into the Fox News space. But perhaps that is too far fetched and this guy just is an attention seeker.

Edit: Some people are saying Byrne is known as a bit of an odd character who has bankrolled conspiracy theory sites in the past. This is sounding like another fine 'information' era spiral of 'deep state' nonsense.

[hepcat]

Are we absolutely sure Byrne isn't really John McAfee in disguise?

Also, how long until Fox and Friends declare Byrne to be an American hero, and Trump tweets out something about him...using multiple exclamation marks?

edit: answer: not long. I see he's already taking up a lot of their news right now. As a matter of fact, I can't seem to find any interviews with Byrne being done by anyone BUT Fox this morning.

My favorite quote from the nutjob during a Trump Media Fox News interview:

every time I see one of these things, somebody drives 600 miles to gun down 20 strangers in the mall, I guess I feel a bit responsible.”

Sounds like someone just wants to feel important and will tell people anything to seem important. Almost 3 years of Trump has made such things easily recognizable.

[LordMortis]

This is the closest we have to an all things Russia thread

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-prepari ... ov-1461547

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has promised a "surprise" retaliation after 10 Russian diplomats were denied visas to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.

Lavrov said Thursday that Russian officials are now working on a response. "We will prepare some measures," the diplomat told the Channel 1 TV station, according to the Tass state news agency.

"Don't deprive us of a chance to make a surprise," Lavrov added, refusing to provide any further details.

Is that from the GOP playbook? No wait the GOP don't make promises when it comes to hackery. They live up to things. They only allusions to the future when it comes to promises of the greatness to come.

The spat prompted Russian lawmakers to propose moving the United Nations headquarters away from New York. State Duma member Natalya Poklonskaya, for example, suggested the building be relocated to the Crimean resort city of Yalta, which was part of Ukraine until Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014.

Poklonskaya said such a move would "end all speculations and outdated and very annoying fairy tales from overseas about the annexation of Crimea." The former prosecutor said the resort city is "a beautiful place" that would "encourage peace and constructive dialogue."

[Holman]

This fucker.

He's burning down America and the West for a real-estate deal in Moscow. (Fucking MOSCOW??)

Donald Trump disputed that Russia was behind the attempted murder of a former Russian spy in a tense call with Theresa May, it has emerged.

Despite the widespread conclusion that Vladimir Putin’s regime was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last year, the US president is said to have spent 10 minutes expressing his doubts about Russian involvement.

According to the Washington Post, Trump “harangued” May about Britain’s contribution to Nato in a phone call with Britain’s then prime minister in the summer of last year, before disputing Russian involvement in the Skripal case.

“Trump totally bought into the idea there was credible doubt about the poisoning,” said a figure briefed on the call. “A solid 10 minutes of the conversation is spent with May saying it’s highly likely and him saying he’s not sure.”

[malchior]

Surprising only the people who won't believe our country is sliding into autocracy...the Russia probe probe is now a criminal investigation. I still believe it is almost certain the Democratic Presidential candidate will be under investigation or smeared by the Government next year.

[Kraken]

It is a given that the Russians will stop at nothing to Putin's puppet next year, and our government's official policy is to look the other way. For those of us who thought the Chinese might do something to counter that...think again. Many in China hope Trump will be reelected: "He's an easy read."

Though the US-China relationship has been rocky for 18 months, many in China’s halls of power hope the American leader will win a second term next year. For although he may seem unpredictable, Chinese officials are betting that Trump’s transactional approach to politics might be preferable to a more principles-driven president, whether Democrat or Republican.

‘‘Trump is a businessman. We can just pay him money and the problems will be solved,’’ said a politically connected person in Beijing, speaking on the condition of anonymity. ‘‘As long as we have money, we can buy him. That’s the reason why we prefer him to Democrats.’’

Trump’s unfiltered tweets help China in negotiations because he is ‘‘easy to read,’’ said Long Yongtu, a former vice minister of foreign trade and China’s point man during its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, at a conference in Shenzhen this month. ‘‘We want Trump to be reelected; we would be glad to see that happen.’’

Another influential voice in Beijing, Tsinghua University international relations professor Yan Xuetong, wrote recently that, thanks to Trump, China was facing ‘‘the best strategic opportunity’’ since the Cold War.

‘‘Trump has undermined the US-led alliance system, which has improved China’s international environment,’’ Yan said in Southern Review.

But wait! What about the trade war? Surely they want an end to that.

Many analysts expect a ‘‘phase one’’ deal to be reached, not least because many of the provisions are in China’s interest. A virus has decimated the pig population in China, the world’s largest consumer of pork, spurring officials to look abroad and to other meats to satisfy demand. And the ‘‘phase one’’ deal looks a lot like the deal on the table in April — minus the parts that irritated Beijing.

Still, China’s leaders have no incentive to proceed quickly, said Paul Haenle, an Asia adviser in the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama who is now at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing. ‘‘Why would we give the US a comprehensive deal going into an election year?’’ Haenle said, posing the question Beijing officials are asking themselves. ‘‘If we give you a lot now and in 2020, then what will we have to give Trump in his second term?’’

Unconvinced? Read the link for some more choice bits that I skipped over.

[Defiant]

Want more? Here you go:

...Aside from circumstantial evidence, it is impossible to know if ballots cast by Georgia voters were changed because the state does not require a post-election audit. Even if it did, an audit might not be possible because the state does not require voting machines to have paper ballots...

...The only logical explanation that could possibly explain why Russians did not change votes in Georgia is to somehow believe an international cabal of hackers got into the system, found instructions, voter registrations and passwords to voting machines and yet somehow decided not to do it, just because.

Marks says Georgia’s systems would have been an “ideal” target for Russian hackers because the state doesn’t use a system with a paper trail so there is no way to audit the system. Of course, a diligent eye could have inspected Georgia’s system or compared the saved backups with the hacked server.

But when Marks’ organization sued for data to see whether or not the state’s elections systems had been penetrated, Kennesaw State University, the college that houses the Center for Election Systems, wiped the servers clean.

Then they wiped the servers’ backups clean.

A computer security expert says he found that a forensic image of the election server central to a legal battle over the integrity of Georgia elections showed signs that the original server was hacked.

The server was left exposed to the open internet for at least six months, a problem the same expert discovered in August 2016. It was subsequently wiped clean in mid-2017 with no notice, just days after election integrity activists filed a lawsuit seeking an overhaul of what they called the state’s unreliable and negligently run election system.

https://apnews.com/39dad9d39a7533efe06e0774615a6d05

[NickAragua]

To be fair, it's kind of pointless to screw with the votes in Georgia. I'd be more concerned with foreign agents screwing with the votes in a purple state.

Although, to be honest, it's probably a lot easier to just set up some fake troll accounts on social media and push existing stupid conspiracy theories. At that point, Patty, Karen and Billy-Bob will do the rest.

[malchior]

To be fair, it's kind of pointless to screw with the votes in Georgia. I'd be more concerned with foreign agents screwing with the votes in a purple state.

The governership of Georgia almost went to Stacey Abrams. She lost by only ~50K votes. Also, hacken often take the shots they can get. Even if to just test if it was possible to do the attack in the first place.

[NickAragua]

Your points are valid, but I don't think they negate my main assertion. My point is that the amount of effort expended on compromising an internet-enabled ballot machine as it posts "lol just counted votes" to instagram is pretty high compared to the effort of telling your scripted bot accounts to push "like" and "retweet" on the latest Benghazi conspiracy or whatever. I don't know how those voting machines are set up, but unless they're connected to a central database, you'd have to compromise quite a few to get 50k changed votes (imagine how many machines are in a given polling place, and how many people get serviced by each polling place). And you have to make sure to not be too obvious about it - not only in terms of preventing intrusion/manipulation detection, but also in terms of it becomes pretty obvious when you take a look at the vote pattern and notice that Trump got 100% of the vote in a polling station that services a primarily black county.

Not that any of that prevents compromise of voting machines, but the "return on investment" is much better on social media manipulation, as the dumbass American electorate basically does the work for you.

Anyway, when was the last time Georgia went blue in a presidential election? (Wikipedia says Clinton in 1992, which was 28 years ago, which is a long time, especially in terms of electoral politics)

[Unagi]

Perhaps it’s for practice.

[LordMortis]

Perhaps it’s for practice.

I don't want to play games with conspiracy theories but that's what I would do. Compromise an election you are going to win anyway to see test how well you get away with it. Then apply lessons learned to more challenging elections.

That said, I concur with the sentiment that there's no risk in programming people. Psy Ops of the annonymously mass messaging on the Internet is shown to work and has no risk. We can't even mitigate against clearly illegal cell phone spam abuse. Programming people to lean heavier and heavier into fictions they are pre-dispoosed to believe in anyway and prepping the next generation? Why not?

[malchior]

Your points are valid, but I don't think they negate my main assertion. My point is that the amount of effort expended on compromising an internet-enabled ballot machine as it posts "lol just counted votes" to instagram is pretty high compared to the effort of telling your scripted bot accounts to push "like" and "retweet" on the latest Benghazi conspiracy or whatever. I don't know how those voting machines are set up, but unless they're connected to a central database, you'd have to compromise quite a few to get 50k changed votes (imagine how many machines are in a given polling place, and how many people get serviced by each polling place). And you have to make sure to not be too obvious about it - not only in terms of preventing intrusion/manipulation detection, but also in terms of it becomes pretty obvious when you take a look at the vote pattern and notice that Trump got 100% of the vote in a polling station that services a primarily black county.

You are presuming a lot here. It might not be a lot of effort to get into the machine. There are a lot of reasons why it is trivial. It is even likely it was "easy". Some barely patched Windows machine likely with crappy untested apps connected to the Internet? Heck, it might have been 'hacked' by some worm and not even a sophisticated group like an APT28 running a watering hole attack, or exploiting the recently NSA-disclosed crypto issue in Windows that was likely known to state level actors for some time, or some other sophisticated scheme.

More importantly it is extremely likely the adversary here wants to manipulate our elections directly or indirectly in any way they can. If they can get in and compromise one vote then they can also leak that fact to taint elections. Switching an entire district to 100% Trump in a black district with no way to prove/disprove could be a win to them if it fits their strategy. They may wish it to be obvious or they might wish to have deniability. They may be able to achieve deniability even when it is extremely obvious. I've been dealing with Russian/APT level actors for a long time now and their motives are all over the place. What is consistent is that they are very good, often have coordinated campaigns, and are dedicating a lot of resources to offense since it is an major asymmetrical advantage they have developed. Anyway, my point is you are not thinking like they are. You can't look at it as what you perceive as a level of effort since they are a professional military organization with orders and some of the best hackers in the world.

Not that any of that prevents compromise of voting machines, but the "return on investment" is much better on social media manipulation, as the dumbass American electorate basically does the work for you.

With their resources, they are doing it all. I would be completely unsurprised if they had a dedicated squad (or multiple squads) for election security. And several squads aimed at propaganda/social media. Others are probing critical infrastructure. Others are looking at financial institutions. You are dealing with nation-state level actors here. That is why experts have been hanging off the alarm bells about the complete lack of defense.

Anyway, when was the last time Georgia went blue in a presidential election? (Wikipedia says Clinton in 1992, which was 28 years ago, which is a long time, especially in terms of electoral politics)

Like I said they don't have to 100% swing the election or turn Georgia blue. They are like termites undermining the system.

[NickAragua]

]Like I said they don't have to 100% swing the election or turn Georgia blue. They are like termites undermining the system.

I agree with your point on a larger scale. I was just having a little bit of fun at the expense of an easy target (the idea of Georgia somehow being decisive or 'swing', and also Georgia + computer security = lol?). And also, on a larger scale, our main problem isn't really foreign propaganda or vote manipulation, it's that people (specifically, the American voting public) are stupid and gullible in general. And while the foreign interference issue is solvable with enough effort (not happening under current administration), it's unlikely that people will become any smarter (there's a reason for the saying that the weakest part of any security system is the people).

[El Guapo]

One of the big things I'm worried about, which seems eminently doable, is just to delete voter registration data (or possibly just change details, like address data) in a small group of heavily democratic areas (cities) in a few swing states. It manifests itself in low turnout (and related long lines) in Democratic polling areas, which would cost the democratic nominee enough in a very close state to swing it.

[malchior]

One of the big things I'm worried about, which seems eminently doable, is just to delete voter registration data (or possibly just change details, like address data) in a small group of heavily democratic areas (cities) in a few swing states. It manifests itself in low turnout (and related long lines) in Democratic polling areas, which would cost the democratic nominee enough in a very close state to swing it.

Exactly. The good thing is that targeting with specificity is hard and likely requires multiple control failures. However, they have the resources to find targets of opportunity and then seed enough doubt. I do think they'd still go subtle here because it is better to be able to melt away if Trump wins again. I suspect we didn't hear much about successful ops in 2016 because he *did win*. That's a guess but it feel direction-ally right to me. Absent intelligence we can only build defenses and/or react to probes/attacks. Not awesome but not terrible if McConnell and company weren't actively abetting them. What we do know is that they are interested in our election. It isn't because they are curious about how to run one cleanly.

[hitbyambulance]

FBI arrests federal contractor named Reality Winner for leaking the May 5th report about election machine phishing campaign.

BBC

Reality Winner, 26, had faced up to 10 years in prison, but this was reduced to 63 months under a plea deal.
...
Her sentence is reported to be the longest given for passing confidential material to a media outlet.

Reality Winner contracted covid-19 in prison

[Isgrimnur]

USA Today

A report on Russian interference into British politics was finally published Tuesday, more than a year after allegations surfaced that Moscow sought to meddle in Britain's 2019 general election and following similar claims about its 2016 Brexit vote to leave the European Union and a 2014 failed referendum on Scottish independence.

The report, published by the British Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, and based on the findings of spy agencies as well as assessments from independent security analysts, confirmed what British politicians have long suspected: that the Kremlin has used espionage and diverse forms of subversion, including cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns and state-sponsored assassinations to undermine British democratic processes and divide alliances such as NATO and the EU.

[Alefroth]

Quick, better arrest some Chinese.

[Isgrimnur]

Different thread.

[Remus West]

Different thread.

Why? You wouldn't expect our leadership to support arresting Russians?! We would never betray them. Had to be the Chinese's fault.

[Isgrimnur]

Because I have a different thread.

[hepcat]

bam?

[Smoove_B]

I kinda feel like maybe this should be bigger news?

President Trump has had monthly phone calls with Vladimir Putin since March. (They've had 7 publicly disclosed calls during this period.) This is the most sustained contact between the two leaders since the Trump Era began in 2017.

I mean, I know we're all busy with the virus and stuff, but why aren't there more people talking about this, namely elected officials in Congress?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Trump has said more about Ghislaine Maxwell than the Russian bounty on U.S. soldiers, right?

[Jeff V]

Now that the election is nearing, his boss feels the need to micromanage, thus the more frequent meetings.

[malchior]

I kinda feel like maybe this should be bigger news?

President Trump has had monthly phone calls with Vladimir Putin since March. (They've had 7 publicly disclosed calls during this period.) This is the most sustained contact between the two leaders since the Trump Era began in 2017.

I mean, I know we're all busy with the virus and stuff, but why aren't there more people talking about this, namely elected officials in Congress?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Trump has said more about Ghislaine Maxwell than the Russian bounty on U.S. soldiers, right?

What's more bizarre is the WH Press corps doesn't even ask *what they talk about*. I mean that seems like a lay up if you are a journalist.

[Unagi]

Someday, I can't wait to wake up and tell everyone about this nightmare.

You guys are never going to believe me.

[Holman]

Oh, hey, Russia is definitely at it again.

DNI Warns For The First Time That Russia Wants To Damage Biden In The 2020 Election.

The Russian government is supporting efforts to damage Joe Biden and boost President Trump, counterintelligence chief William Evanina said on Friday.

The statement from Evanina also says that China”prefers” for Trump to lose re-election to Biden.

The new announcement comes two weeks after Evanina released a similar, but less specific statement warning of interference by Russia, China, and Iran in the November elections.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reportedly chastised Evanina last week over the statement, accusing him of withholding key information about foreign meddling campaigns in the 2020 elections, including Russian support for President Trump’s re-election.

The new, Friday afternoon statement fell short of outright stating that Moscow wants Trump re-elected for a second term, instead noting that the Kremlin “is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate” both Biden and “an anti-Russia ‘establishment.'”

The statement does name Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach as an example of those “measures.” Derkach, a graduate of Moscow’s Felix Dzerzhinsky Higher School of State Security, has spent much of 2020 releasing what appear to be edited recordings of phone calls between Biden and Ukraine’s president in 2016.

Derkach met with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani in Kyiv in December 2019, giving him a packet of information about the Bidens.

Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who are running an investigation that drives at much of the same themes found in the Russian government-sponsored efforts to damage Biden, have denied that their probe has taken information from Derkach. The Ukrainian MP has said that he gave the senators information.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, would not say last week whether he took information from Derkach. House Democrats raised the issue after finding a DHL receipt for documents from the Ukrainian parliamentarian.

tl;dr: Russia continues to supply disinformation to willing Republicans willing to launder it as "intelligence" damaging Biden. The DNI also says that Chinese and Iranian propaganda oppose Trump, but gives no indication of active measures like Russia's against Biden.

[Holman]

WaPo runs editorial by Senator Richard Blumenthal calling for declassification of intelligence on ongoing Russian interference.

The threat to U.S. elections is real, and frightening. The public has a right to know.

The warning lights are flashing red. America’s elections are under attack.

This week, I reviewed classified materials in the Senate’s Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility and received a similarly classified briefing on malign foreign threats to U.S. elections. I was shocked by what I learned — and appalled that, by swearing Congress to secrecy, the Trump administration is keeping the truth about a grave, looming threat to democracy hidden from the American people. On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement that only hints at the threats.

The facts are chilling. I believe the American public needs and deserves to know them. The information should be declassified immediately.

The publicly available facts are terrifying enough. A report released on Wednesday by the State Department outlined in detail attempts by Russian front groups, fake individual online identities and state-funded media to sow disinformation and dissension about U.S. allies around the world. Russian intelligence operations have perfected the art of laundering distorted and fabricated narratives through media networks, covert hacking, international proxies and others to undermine democracies, attack the United States’ global image and silence criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Instead, by keeping the facts cloaked in secrecy, the Trump administration and its Republican allies on Capitol Hill invite disinformation and give deception a toehold in the American electorate. And it now appears that such disinformation and deception are gaining a toehold in Congress as well:

On Wednesday, The Post reported that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is moving ahead with an investigation into presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s family using documents provided to the senator by the son of a former KGB officer. Johnson’s actions are of such concern to the CIA, according to news reports, that the agency has refused to brief him. Think of it: Congress may become a forum for debunked conspiracy theories peddled by Kremlin proxies.

There is no excuse for perpetuating Russian disinformation in the U.S. Senate, just as there is there is no excuse for barring the American public from learning more about the genuine foreign threats to the November election. The Trump administration appears to be failing to take the danger seriously, failing to prepare adequately.

Protecting the nation’s democratic values should be a bipartisan imperative. Those of us in Washington should not risk looking back and saying, if only we’d known, we could have done something. We do know. We can do something. It starts with sharing the truth.

[malchior]

I'm glad they are speaking up this time. This is no time to pull punches. This is potentially the end of the experiment here if this doesn't go the right way. It also keeps the pressure on Trump by illustrating that something *obviously* is going on with him and Russia. Though I do expect Barr to try to judo flip the Russia issue by strategically unleashing the Durham report on the world at the right moment...or burying it if it doesn't say what he wants it to.