The Justice Department on Thursday released the findings of a cyber task force created in February by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying it will now implement a policy that will let the public know when a foreign government is attempting to influence American politics.
“Influence operations are a form of information warfare,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in prepared remarks at Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Thursday. “Exposing schemes to the public is an important way to neutralize them. The American people have a right to know if foreign governments are targeting them with propaganda.”
[Related: Multiple cybersecurity officials to leave FBI amid warnings of continued threats]
The announcement comes roughly a month after the Justice Department’s internal watchdog released a report on how the FBI handled two key investigations during the 2016 election — that of Hillary Clinton’s private email server and Russian interference in the election, including possible connections to the campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump.
Critics have wondered why officials in President Barack Obama’s administration chose to keep a counterintelligence investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign quiet, but make public the Clinton probe.
The new policy, Rosenstein said, “reflects an effort to articulate neutral principles so that when the issue the government confronted in 2016 arises again — as it surely will — there will be a framework to address it.”
The new policy will include bringing charges for federal crimes against those perpetrating the operations, including hacking and identity fraud, against American companies, private sector organizations, and even individuals.
“Public exposure and attribution of foreign influence operations can be an important means of countering the threat and rendering those operations less effective,” the new policy states.
But when making the foreign influence attempt known, partisan politics “must play no role,” the policy states. “Such efforts must not be for the purpose of conferring any advantage or disadvantage on any political or social group or any individual or organization.”
In his remarks, Rosenstein made note of Russia’s 2016 attempts, calling them “just one tree in a growing forest.”
”Focusing merely on a single election misses the point,” he said, adding that “modern technology vastly expands the speed and effectiveness of disinformation campaigns.”
Read the full report below:
