Senate Intelligence Nothing-Burger on Alleged Russian Election Interference Spurs Fake-News Binge

July 28, 2018 (EIRNS)—Just 24 hours after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s failed performance before two the Judiciary and Intelligence committees on July 24, fake news networks blared out variations on the headline, “Russia Targeted Election Systems in All 50 States.” They cited the just-released Volume 1 of the Senate Intelligence Committee report titled, “Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election.” Although the title and some statements in the report were clearly designed to convey the same impression as the fraudulent Mueller report—that the Russians had virtually taken control of computerized electoral systems throughout the United States—the report said nothing of the kind.

Was it 50 states? First, on pages 7 and 12, the report deals with how many states were affected. It quotes Obama’s former Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel saying, “eventually we get enough of a picture over the course of August 2016 that we become confident that we’re seeing the Russian probe a whole bunch of different state election infrastructure....” Dr. Samuel Liles, Acting Director of Homeland Security Cyber Analysis Division, testified, “[B]y late September [2016], we determined that internet-connected election-related networks in 21 states were potentially targeted by Russian government cyber actors.” The report then said that neither the committee nor the intelligence community could “discern a pattern in the affected states.” But, they said,

“Mr. Daniel ... had already personally concluded that the Russians had attempted to intrude in all 50 states, based on the extent of the activity and the apparent randomness of the attempts. ‘My professional judgment was we have to work under the assumption that they’ve tried to go everywhere, because they’re thorough, they’re competent, they’re good.’ ”

So, the fake news went from “a whole bunch” to “potentially” 21, to “they’ve tried to go everywhere” to “The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming to all 50 states.”

All other sections of the report had the same fallacy of composition methodology.