Senate Report Charges Russia with ‘Aggressive’ Intervention in 2016 Election, Fuels Fright for 2020

Aug. 18, 2020 (EIRNS)—The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today released its new report, Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities. The first finding of the 950-page, heavily redacted report states: “The Committee found that the Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multifaceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.” This report is the fifth and last of a series done over recent years by the committee. Whatever its precise content—whose lengthy table of contents covers the waterfront from Fusion GPS to “Trump’s Travel to Moscow in 1996,” the import of its release today feeds the hysteria over the scenario that the integrity of the November elections is doomed by looming Russian interference.

The Acting Chair of the Committee Sen. Marco Rubio put out a statement today, among other things, proclaiming:

“We can say, without any hesitation, that the Committee found absolutely no evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government to meddle in the 2016 election.... What the Committee did find, however, is very troubling. We found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling.... Now, as we head towards the 2020 elections, China and Iran have joined Russia in attempts to disrupt our democracy, exacerbate societal divisions, and sow doubts about the legitimacy and integrity of our institutions, our electoral process and our republic.”

Vice Chairman of the Committee, Democrat Sen. Mark Warner’s press release commented that the report shows, “a breathtaking level of contacts between Trump officials and Russian government operatives that is a very real counterintelligence threat to our elections.”