President Obama has ordered a review of allegations that Russia conducted a series of cyberattacks to influence the presidential election results, according to a top White House official. A spokesman later added that the investigation would include “malicious cyber activity” tied to races for the White House that preceded the one this year.
“The president has directed the Intelligence Community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process. It is to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders,” White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco told reporters Friday.
Democratic lawmakers have insisted on further investigation into cyberattacks this summer that plagued a number of organizations, including the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Monaco said that the results of the review would be shared with members of Congress, but may not be available to the public.
“That’s going to be first and foremost a determination that’s made by the intelligence community,” she said. “You want to do so very attentive to not disclosing sources and methods that would impede our ability to identify and attribute malicious actors in the future.”
Republican lawmakers are also readying to further investigate the cyberattacks, including South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham.
“I’m going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia. I think they’re one of the most destabilizing influences on the world stage,” the former Republican presidential candidate told CNN this week. “I think they did interfere with our elections, and I want Putin personally to pay the price.”
But there was also Republican criticism that Obama’s directive was a case of johnny-come-lately. “Unfortunately the Obama administration, dedicated to delusions of ‘resetting’ relations with Russia, ignored pleas by numerous Intelligence Committee members to take more forceful action against the Kremlin’s aggression,” House Intellgence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said in a statement. “It appears, however, that after eight years the administration has suddenly awoken to the threat.”
And the White House did grant that the threat went back eight years. Asked if the review would go all the back to 2008, administration spokesman Eric Schultz said “the president asked for is a review to look at malicious cyber activity timed to our presidential election cycle, and so it will be broader than just looking at this past election.”
Donald Trump has maintained that Russia did not interfere with the 2016 election, reiterating his point in an interview with Time for its “Person of the Year” story about the president-elect. “I don’t believe they interfered. That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say ‘oh, Russia interfered,'” Time quoted Trump as saying.
“It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey. I believe that it could have been Russia and it could have been any one of many other people, sources, or even individuals.”
