Senate intelligence leaders: Russians schemed to help Trump

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico



By MARTIN MATISHAK and KYLE CHENEY 05/16/2018 12:33 PM EDT Updated 05/16/2018 01:12 PM EDT

Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday endorsed the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election to help President Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.

It's a powerful bipartisan endorsement of a conclusion that had been called into question by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, who have accused intelligence agencies of failing to employ proper "tradecraft" when they concluded Russia came to support Trump's candidacy. Instead, it's the Republicans on the House panel who find themselves isolated in their position in what has become an increasingly antagonistic relationship with the FBI and Justice Department.

“I’ve heard nothing to contradict anything from the [intelligence community assessment] particularly in terms of the fact Russian massively intervened in our elections to the purpose of helping Mr. Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton,” the committee's top Democrat, Mark Warner of Virginia, told reporters after the committee held a closed hearing with intelligence committee leaders.

The committee's chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), said the panel would issue a full report on its findings after a declassification review by the intelligence community.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/16/russians-schemed-to-help-trump-senate-intel-591882

---

Russia favored Trump in 2016, Senate panel says, breaking with House GOP

By Karoun Demirjian May 16 at 12:28 PM

The Senate Intelligence Committee has determined that the intelligence community was correct in assessing that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election with the aim of helping then-candidate Donald Trump, contradicting findings House Republicans reached last month.

“Our staff concluded that the [intelligence community’s] conclusions were accurate and on point,” the panel’s vice chairman, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), said Wednesday in a joint statement with Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), its chairman. “The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton,” Warner continued.

But that last determination — that Russia intended to help Trump — sets up a clash within the GOP over which record of events is most accurate, a dispute that could complicate the party’s messaging surrounding the Russia investigations as it heads into the 2018 election season. While the House Republicans’ report also concurred with the bulk of the intelligence community’s findings about Russian meddling, it accused officials of not following their own best practices in determining that Moscow hoped Trump would win.

Trump has taken umbrage at the intelligence community’s determination that the Kremlin favored his candidacy over that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The president cheered the House Intelligence Committee’s findings and report on Twitter, claiming it vindicated him by finding there was no evidence of collusion or coordination with Russia.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/russia-favored-trump-in-2016-senate-panel-says-breaking-with-house-gop/2018/05/16/6cf95a6a-58f6-11e8-8836-a4a123c359ab_story.html

[Botany]

1. The Russians did not break into our voting systems and d-bases just to "look around"

Russia was into the voting systems of 39 states.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-13/russian-breach-of-39-states-threatens-future-u-s-elections


“The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton,” Warner continued. from the article

[Iliyah]

6. The Russians had inside help.

[nature-lover]

9. Did nothing? That would be like a burglar breaking into your house just to try out your new sofa.

[Dave Starsky]

11. No kidding. What blatant bullshit.

It's actually highly insulting that they would expect anyone to believe that.

[AlexSFCA]

10. but they intended to change votes even if not succeeded

surely they have learned a lot about our databases so that they can succeed in the next round with the inside help.

[fierywoman]

15. Are we absolutely positively sure they didn't succeed?

[nature-lover]

16. Were the voting machines ever checked?

[fierywoman]

17. Especially the purely electronic ones (no paper trail) in the states that made the

difference, made by Diebold (pro-Republican), the voting machines that were hacked in record time by the hackers at the subsequent hacker's convention?

[Achilleaze]

2. And republicans schemed to help the russians attack US democracy

Lock them up.

[meow2u3]

3. No collusion! No obstruction!

No collusion my pig's eye! #TrumpColluded

[shraby]

4. Change the word collusion to conspired and it will be more accurate.

It was a conspiracy between trump and russia from the get go.

[Iliyah]

7. Nunes and others help the WH by informing them witb informaton

and documents and then tried to shut Mueller down while shutting their own hearing down pretty much clearing t-rump.

[Texin]

5. Okay. Now that the Senate panel confirmed this, what will the Senate in its entireity now do?

[lagomorph777]

8. Zip. Nada. Zilch.

McTurtle will go down in ignominy fighting for the Russians.

[relogic]

12. Collusion Indeed

By extension the treasonous, corrupt repub party dare not admit that they were aided and colluded with the ruskies attempt to swing the election in favor of Trump.

Let that sink in deplorables. Your installed infestation indicts you, your party and leaders demonstrates for history’s record that this disease they normalize as good is illegitimate. He and your party have no business anywhere near our democracy.

[benld74]

13. NOW is it official?

What we all have known now
Since 2016?

[BadgerMom]

14. K & R

Do everything to keep this story in view.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Thank you, DonViejo. Rec. n/t

[BobTheSubgenius]

19. If you are ever presented with the opportunity, or odiously compelled to shake hands..

..with any of the House Republicans on that committee, you'd be well-advised to count your fingers afterwards.