Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday appeared to concur with the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, and did so to help then-candidate Donald Trump.
“Committee staff have spent 14 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft, and analytic work, and we see no reason to dispute the conclusions,” said Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C. “There is no doubt that Russia undertook an unprecedented effort to interfere with our 2016 elections.”
Burr didn’t say specifically that he believes Russia’s goal was to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, but that was the conclusion of the intelligence community’s assessment. A committee staffer told the Washington Examiner he had nothing else to add that statement.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., was much more explicit.
“After a thorough review, our staff concluded that the ICA conclusions were accurate and on point,” he said. “The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton.”
That conclusion breaks with the findings of the House Intelligence Committee, which found only that Russia interfered, but not to help one candidate over the other.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has been reviewing Russian meddling for more than a year following the January 2017 release of a report on the 2016 election that was put together by top U.S. intelligence officials from the CIA, FBI and NSA. The 2017 intelligence community’s assessment concluded that Russia waned to interfere in the election not solely to undermine the U.S.’s democratic process, but to help Republican candidate Donald Trump and hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Senate committee members huddled behind closed doors with the top intelligence officials that helped write the January 2017 assessment: Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr., Former CIA Director John Brennan, and former National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers to further there investigation.
A full report from the Senate Intelligence Committee is expected by summer.
The House Intelligence Committee already completed its probe into Russian influence, which agreed that Russia meddled but did not agree that it wanted Trump to win the White House.
[Related: House Intelligence Committee votes to end Russia investigation]
