Sen. Bob Corker plans to hold hearings on alleged Russian influence on the presidential election through hacking of Democratic Party and senior Clinton campaign officials’ emails.
Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said on MSNBC Tuesday morning that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin put his thumb on the scale of the election by sanctioning hacks of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta’s email.
It’s widely believed in the intelligence community that Russia is behind the hack of the Democratic Party’s email in the summer, and Podesta’s emails in the month before the election.
Corker said the overt nature of the hack and the release of the stolen emails was unprecedented. He said Putin was trying to embarrass and discredit Clinton and her campaign.
“It was very unique that the way it was done and it was done in a manner to be visible to the world,” Corker said. “That was a new step, and I do think and I do believe they were involved. I have no proof of that at present.”
Corker said he plans to hold hearings in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about Russian influence on the election. He said the integrity of the country’s electoral process needs to be upheld and strengthened to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
However, Corker said President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, which may have been helped by the Russian hacks, could have backfired on Putin’s attempts to discredit American democracy.
Corker said Putin was trying to send a message to his country that American democracy is rigged.
