President Obama is withholding information from Congress about the cyberattacks that took place during the election, even as leaks from a forthcoming intelligence report trickle out, according to frustrated Senate Republicans.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker complained that FBI and national intelligence officials “were told not to come” to his classified hearing on Thursday regarding cyberattacks and the harassment of U.S. diplomats. Instead, the administration furnished witnesses from the State Department and the Treasury Department. Separately, media outlets reported Thursday night that the CIA has identified the Russians who provided the stolen Democratic emails to WikiLeaks, which released the messages during the fall election.
“So, I’m sitting here and I can’t get an intelligence person but I can read in one of your publications this morning [someone] is leaking out this information,” the Tennessee Republican said at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington. “When you’ve got a highly classified document that’s coming out … and we’re denied access to these intelligence officials until it comes out, but then I read in one of your publications this morning what it says or what portions of it say, it does make it feel political, OK?”
President-elect Trump has dismissed intelligence reports that Russia interfered in the election and accused the CIA and the Obama administration of using the issue of Russian cyberattacks to try to tarnish his presidential victory. Republicans who attended the closed-door briefing Thursday afternoon shared that frustration, even those who disagree with Trump’s refusal to accept the veracity of the intelligence analysis.
“They didn’t want it political before the election, but all of a sudden [there are] leaks from the intel community. I don’t get access to the information, and this is still playing out, so exactly what they didn’t want happening they are causing to happen right now,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told reporters. “So, I’m not really happy with the way this is playing out right now … their thinking changed because, apparently, they didn’t like the result [of the election].”
Senators on both sides of the aisle suggested that the hearing didn’t provide much in the way of new information on Russian hacks. “We all have to see the full report that is going to be released before we make up our mind as to what exactly the full level of response from the United States should be,” Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said Thursday. “The briefing pretty well corroborated what was already out in the public domain.”
