COMl\UTTEE SENSITIVE -RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY 

l l 6m CONGRESS 

2ndSESSION 

SENATE 

(U) REPORT 

OF THE 

SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ON 

RUSSIAN ACTIVE MEASURES CAMPAIGNS AND INTERFERENCE 

IN THE 2016 U.S. ELECTION 

REPORT 

116-xx 

VOLUME 3: U.S. GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO RUSSIAN ACTIVITIES 

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(U) CONTENTS 

I. (U) INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 3 

IL (U) FINDINGS ......................................................................................................................... 4 

III. (U) AWARENESS OF THE INTRUSION INTO THE DNC NETWORK .......................... 5 

A. (U) Policymakers' Awareness ............................................................................................. 5 

B. (U) The U.S. Intelligence Community's Awareness ........................................................... 6 

C. (U) The Weaponization of Information ............................................................................... 8 

IV. INTELLIGENCE WAS THE "WAKE UP" CALL .................. 11 

V. (U) DEBATE ON HOW TO RESPOND ............................................................................... 13 

A. (U) The "Small Group" ....................................................................................................... 13 

B. (U) Debate Over Options ................................................................................................... 15 

C. (U) Perceived Constraints .................................................................................................. 17 

1. (U) Heavily Politicized Environment ............................................................................. 17 

2. (U) Concern that Public Warnings Could Undermine Confidence in the Election ........ 19 

3. . .................................................. 20 

4. (U) Delay in Publicly Attributing Some Efforts to Russia ............................................. 20 

5. (U) Time and Resources Required to Compose Policy Options Prior to Execution ...... 22 

6. (U) WikiLeaks ................................................................................................................ 23 

VI. (U) PRE-ELECTION ACTIONS ......................................................................................... 24 

A. (U) Warnings to Moscow .................................................................................................... 25 

1. (U) Secretary Kerry and Minister Lavrov ....................................................................... 25 

2. (U) Directors Brennan and Bortnikov ............................................................................. 25 

3. (U) Presidents Obama and Putin ..................................................................................... 26 

4. (U) Ambassadors Rice and Kislyak ................................................................................ 27 

5. (U) The Cyber Hotline .................................................................................................... 27 

B. (U) Protecting Election Infrastructure ................................................................................ 29 

C. (U) Congressional Statements ............................................................................................ 31 

D. (U) The October 7, 2016, ODNI-DHS Statement .............................................................. 34 

E. (U) Effects of Pre-Election Actions ................................................................................... 36 

VIL (U) POST-ELECTION ACTIONS ..................................................................................... 37 

A. (U) Expulsion of Russian Diplomats ................................................................................. 38 

B. (U) Modifying the EO and Sanctions ................................................................................. 39 

c. . ........................................................................ 39 

D. (U) Cybersecurity Action ................................................................................................... 41 

E. (U) Tasking the ICA ........................................................................................................... 41 

F. (U) Protecting Election Infrastructure ................................................................................ 42 

VIII. (U) OPTIONS CONSIDERED BUT NOT EXECUTED ................................................... 43 

IX. (U) RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................... 44 

X. (U) ADDITIONAL AND MINORITY VIEWS ..................................................................... .47 

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I. (U) INTRODUCTION 

(U) Senior U.S. Government officials in both the Executive and Legislative Branches 

believed they were in uncharted territory in the second half of 2016. They became aware of 

aspects of Russian interference in U.S. elections over the summer and fall, but these officials had 

incomplete information on the scope of the threat. In the fall, the Obama administration 

responded with several warnings to Moscow, but tempered its response over concerns about 

appearing to act politically on behalf of one candidate, undermining public confidence in the 

election, and provoking additional Russian actions. Further, administration officials' options were 

limited by incomplete information about the threat and having a narrow slate of response options 

from which to draw. After the election, President Obama took action to punish Moscow for its 

interference, including instituting sanctions, expelling Russian government personnel, and 

shuttering Russian diplomatic facilities inside the United States. 

(U) While this summary will focus on the events above, understanding the broader 

geopolitical context is important. In 2013, about four years after President Obama gave a speech 

at Moscow's New Economic School announcing his intent to "reset" relations with Russia, 

Moscow granted political asylum to Edward Snowden after he illegally stole and disclosed 

classified U.S. Government information. In 2014, Russia unlawfully invaded and occupied the 

Crimean Peninsula and parts of eastern Ukraine. In 2015, Russian troops landed on the ground in 

Syria, propping up a struggling Assad regime that had perpetuated widespread human rights 

violations and used unconscionable force against its own population. In 2016, Russian security 

forces harassed numerous U.S. diplomats in Russia, including assaulting an American diplomat 

in front of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. As the administration was engaging Russia to 

deescalate the conflict in Syria and calm tensions in Ukraine, Russia was directing its well-honed 

cyber capabilities and influence operations in a multi-front campaign to interfere in the elections 

of the United States and a number of allied nations. 

(U) With the benefit of hindsight and additional information, the Committee now knows 

far more about the scope of Russian activity than the administration knew at the time. While it 

was clear to administration officials the Committee interviewed that Russia was taking steps to 

interfere in the election, the extent of Russian activity to influence voters, sow discord in U.S. 

society, and undermine confidence in democratic institutions only emerged later. In addition, 

while the U.S. Government's understanding of Russian activity against state election 

infrastructure has improved over time, the extent of Russian cyber activity against state and local 

election systems was unclear in the fall of 2016. 

(U) Senior administration officials told the Committee that they assessed that their 

warnings to Russia before the election had the desired effect, and that Russia undertook little to 

no additional action once the warnings were delivered. However, it is now clear that at least 

some aspects of Russian activity continued through the fall of 2016 and after the election; 

notably, Russia's use of social media and its attempts to penetrate vulnerable state and local 

election infrastructure. 

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(U) The Committee examined the Obama administration's actions and the constraints it 

faced. From this review, the Committee has made a series of findings and recommendations that 

are outlined below. 

II. (U) FINDINGS 

1. (U) The Committee found that the U.S. Government was not well-postured to counter 

Russian election interference activity with a full range of readily-available policy options. 

One aspect of the administration's response-high-level warnings of potential 

retaliation-may or may not have tempered Moscow's activity. The Committee found 

that after the warnings, Russia continued its cyber activity, to include further public 

dissemination of stolen emails, clandestine social media-based influence operations, and 

penetration of state voting infrastructure through Election Day 2016. 

2. (U) The Committee found that the administration was constrained in its response to 

Russian meddling by (1) the heavily politicized environment; (2) the concern that public 

warnings would themselves undermine public confidence in the election, thereby 

inadvertently helping the Russian effort; (3) the unknown extent to which the Russians 

could target and manipulate election systems; (4) the delay in definitive attribution of 

some efforts to Russia; (5) the time and resources required to compose policy options 

prior to execution; and (6) challenges in how to address WikiLeaks. These constraints 

affected the response options available, as well as the timing and sequencing of their 

implementation. 

3. The Committee found that policymakers in 2016 were not concerned with 

Russian electoral interference directly targeting the United States until CIA 

Director John Director Brennan reported information through a 

series of oral briefings to a restricted group of senior policymakers. Intelligence on 

Russian activity related to the U.S. election before- was limited, and the Committee 

saw no evidence that policymakers with access to intelligence reports were focused on 

the election threat before •••I 

4. (U) The Committee found that the administration handled the cyber and geopolitical 

aspects of the Russian active measures campaign as separate issues until August 2016. 

The Committee believes this bifurcated approach may have prevented the administration 

from seeing a more complete view of the threat, limiting its ability to respond. 

5. (U) The Committee found that decisions to limit and delay the information flow 

regarding the 2016 Russian active measures campaign, while understandable, 

inadvertently constrained the administration's ability to respond. 

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III. (U) AWARENESS OF THE INTRUSION INTO THE DNC NETWORK 

A. (U) Policymakers' Awareness 

(U) Most administration officials the Committee interviewed recalled first learning about 

the Russian cyber penetration of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from the news 

media. In fact, had the DNC not approached and cooperated with the Washington Post to 

publish a June 14, 2016, article, senior administration leadership probably would not have been 

aware of the issue until later, in all likelihood when WikiLeaks, Guccifer 2.0, and DCLeaks 

began to publish emails taken from the DNC's network. Witnesses told the Committee that the 

initial reaction of administration officials and the Intelligence Community (IC) was that Russia's 

cyber activity targeting the DNC fell within the bounds of traditional espionage and was not 

understood immediately to be a precursor to an active measures campaign. 

(U) DNC leadership had approached the Washington Post to publish the story about the 

Russian cyber intrusion into the DNC "to make sure that people were aware of what really 

happened," according to the DNC's Chief Executive Officer, Amy Dacey. The story was 

released only days after the DNC had remediated its network with the assistance of Crowdstrike, 

a private cyber security firm. 1 Noting the apparent absence of criminal intent and that "no 

financial, donor or personal information" appeared to have been accessed or taken, the article 

summarized the prevailing view that "the breach was traditional espionage" and cited it as "an 

example of Russia's interest in the U.S. political system and its desire to understand the policies, 

strengths, and weaknesses of a potential future president-much as American spies gather 

similar information on foreign candidates and leaders."2 

••••• Ambassador Susan Rice, the Assistant to the President for National 

Security Affairs, as well as Lisa Monaco, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security 

and Counter Terrorism, both recalled first learning about the intrusion into the DNC in June 

2016, via the news media. 3 

(U) According to Michael Daniel, Special Assistant to the President and White House 

Cybersecurity Coordinator, his first awareness of the intrusion into the DNC similarly came from 

the Washington Post article. Mr. Daniel believed the intrusion was unsurprising, citing previous 

espionage efforts directed at previous presidential campaigns. Because the intrusion was thought 

1 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Amy Dacey, September 20, 2017, pp. 20-21; SSCI Transcript of the 

Interview with Yared Tamene, January 19, 2018, p. 57. 2 (U) Ellen Nakashima, "Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole opposition research on Trump," 

Washington Post, June 14, 2016. 3 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 4; SSCI Transcript of the Interview with 

Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, pp. 5-6. 4 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 6. 

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to be espionage-related (i.e., intelligence collection to inform Russia's understanding of the U.S. 

presidential election), Mr. Daniel believed that the breach was "a[n] [FBI] issue to go work with 

the campaigns on and not something [the National Security Council] was going to get involved 

with directly."5 

B. (U) The U.S. Intelligence Community's Awareness 

.. 

(U) FBI approached DNC staff numerous times throughout 2015 and 2016 to advise 

them that a malicious cyber actor was either targeting or had compromised their networks. FBI 

5 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with J. Michael Daniel, August 31, 2017, pp. 18-20. Mr. Daniel stated he 

confirmed FBI was working with the DNC as a measure of due diligence. 

6 SSCI Transcript of the Interview with , Cyber 

Branch, Washington Field Office, FBI, May 14, 2018, p. 5. 

7 (U) Ibid. 8 

9 (I ) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with , Cyber 

Branch, Washington Field Office, FBI, May 14, 2018, p. 47; Indictment, United States v. Viktor Borisovich 

Netyksho, et al., Case 1:18-cr-00215-ABJ (D.D.C. July 13, 2018). 

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attempted to engage the infonnation technology (IT) staff and eventually the leadership of the 

DNC.10 

I • I I 

(U) Director of National Intelligence James Clapper publicly alluded to the threat of 

cyber attacks against presidential campaigns dw-ing a May 18, 2016, event at the Bipartisan 

Policy Center. stating that the IC had seen some indications that hackers had targeted campaign 

computers, but he did not provide any details. 13 Subsequently, the Director of Public Affairs at 

the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a statement which said, 

10 (U) SSC! Timeline ofFBI-DNC interactions. March 15. 2019: FBI. Cyber Division DNC Notification Summary. 

April 24. 2019: see also Eric Lipton. David E. Sanger. and Scott Shane ... The Perfect Weapon: How Russian 

Cyberpower Invaded the U.S .. " New York Times. December 13. 2016. A more comprehensive accow1t of the FBI"s 

engagements with the DNC will be provided in a forthcoming volume of the Committee's review. 

11 (l ) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with . Cyber 

Branch. Washington Field Office. FBI. May 14. 2018. p. 59. 12·------·-·····--·--··· 13 (U) B1ian Betmett. "U.S. intelligence official says foreign spy services are trying to hack presidential campaign 

networks." Los Angeles Times, May 18. 2016. 

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"We're aware that campaigns and related organizations and individuals are targeted by actors 

with a variety of motivations-from philosophical differences to espionage-from defacements 

to intrusions. We defer to FBI for specific incidents."14 

• 

• 

C. (U) The Weaponization of Information 

(U) One day after the publication of the Washington Post article tying the cyber intrusion 

of the DNC to actors associated with the Russian government, a self-proclaimed hacker using the 

moniker "Guccifer 2.0" started to publicly release documents obtained from the DNC's 

network. 17 

(U) On June 15, 2016, Guccifer 2.0 published a blog article titled, "Guccifer 2.0 DNC's 

Servers Hacked By A Lone Hacker," which included links to several documents including a 

14 (U) ODNI, Tweet on May 18, 2016, 8:54 a.m., https://twitter.com/ODNigov/status/732962479983185920. 

ls- NIC January 19, 2016. 

16 NIC, 

April 1, 2016. 17 (U) Indictment, United States v. Viktor Borisovich Netyksho, et al., Case 1:18-cr-00215-ABJ (D.D.C. July 13, 

2018). 

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December 2015 report prepared by the DNC on then-candidate Donald Tnunp and a pmpo1ted 

list of donors to the DNC .18 The post also includes the statement. "The main part of the papers. 

thousands of files and mails. I gave to Wikileaks. They will publish them soon." 19 

(U) Guccifer 2.0 published seven additional blog posts between June 18, 2016, and July 

14. 2016, highlighting additional doc1m1ents obtained from the DNC's networks or providing 

additional background on the self-proclaimed hacker.20 Guccifer 2.0's blog activity continued 

through the election. 

(U) Starting in mid-June 2016, doc1unents from entities and individuals associated with 

the Democratic Pa1ty were published by the GRU-controlled online personas Guccifer 2.0 and 

DCLeaks. 21 Despite this, as of mid-July 2016, both the IC and policymakers were generally not 

lmder the impression that Russia was engaged in an active measmes campaign targeting the 2016 

election. 

(U) FBI allllounced on Monday, July 25, 2016, three days after WikiLeaks posted 

approximately twenty thousand e-mails from the DNC, that "[t]he FBI is investigating a cyber 

intmsion involving the DNC and are working to detennine the nature and scope of the matter" 

and fnrthe1more "[a] compromise of this nature is something that we take very seriously, and the 

FBI will continue to investigate and hold acc01mtable those who pose a threat in cyberspace.•'22 

(U) Witnesses inte1viewed by the Committee consistently said that Russian cyber activity 

was a well-known issue within the administration, however hardly any administration officials 

had considered the threat of infonnation collected through cyber espionage being weaponized 

when assessing the consequences of the Russian cyber intrusions into the DNC and DCCC 

networks . 

• 

18 (U) ·'Guccifer 2.0 DNC's Servers Hacked By A Lone Hacker." Jlme 15. 2016. 

web.archive.org/web/20 l 60615212 l l 8/https://guccifer2. wordpress.comi. 

19 (l.J) Ibid. 

20 (lT) "Guccifer 2.0.'' web.archive.orglweb/20160721114432/https://guccifer2.wordpress.comi. 

21 (U) Raphael Satter. Jeff Donn. and Chad Day. "h1side Story: How Russians Hacked the Democrats' Emails." US 

Nell's. November 4. 2017: Special Cow1sel Rooert S. Mueller. ill. Rep011 On The h1vestigation Into Russian 

Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election. March 2019. Volume I. p. 36. 

22 (U) Andrea Peterson. "Wikileaks posts nearly 20.000 hacked DNC emails online." Was/ii11gro11 Post. July 22. 

2016: Mike Levine. Rick Klein. and Slmshannah Walshe. "FBI Confinns Investigation hlto Massh·e Hack ofDNc:· 

ABC News. July 25. 2016. 

23 (U) SSCI Memorandum for the Record: futerview with Fonner Secretary of State. John Kerry. November 8. 

2017. p. 6. 

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• 

• (U) FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told the Committee that the weaponization of 

information from the DNC by the Russians was occurring "in a way that we've never 

seen before. "25 

(U) Despite the unprecedented scale and sophistication of the 2016 Russian active 

measures campaign, Moscow has a decades-long history of conducting active measures 

campaigns against the United States. Among these efforts, Russia previously conducted active 

measures operations to discredit U.S. diplomatic personnel, as well as officials in allied nations, 

using leaked information. 

(U) Special Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for 

Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes told the Committee that he was involved with the 

response to the 2014 incident when the Russians captured a January 28, 2014, phone call 

between Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland and 

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. A recording of that conversation was posted on 

YouTube one week later.26 

(U) Mr. Rhodes also told the Committee that, "[t]he Russians also engaged in influence 

operations against our Ambassador [to Russia], Mike Mcfaul, where YouTube videos would be 

posted or innuendo would be spread on social media. "27 

(U) Speaking about the 2014 phone call involving U.S. officials that was released, 

former Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated: 

[J]t sort of fed the larger concern that we had that we were in a new world of 

misinformation ... a new world where information warfare was really the new 

front line, and that the Russians were using it in increasingly aggressive ways. 

And it was one of the ways where they could have an asymmetric advantage. 28 

24 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Rick Ledgett, June 15, 2017, pp. 23-24. 

25 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Andrew McCabe, February 14, 2018, p. 36. 

26 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Benjamin J. Rhodes, July 25, 2017, p. 13-14; BBC, "Ukraine crisis: 

Transcript ofleaked Nuland-Pyatt call," February 7, 2014. 

27 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Benjamin J. Rhodes, July 25, 2017, p. 14. 

28 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Antony Blinken, August 18, 2017, p. 64. 

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(U) Despite Moscow's hist01y of leaking politically damaging infonnation, and the 

increasingly significant publication of illicitly obtained iufonnation by coopted third pai1ies, 

such as WikiLeaks, which historically had published infonnation haimful to the United States. 

previous use of weaponized infonnation alone was not sufficient for the administration to take 

immediate action on the DNC breach. The administration was not fully engaged until some key 

intelligence insights were provided by the IC, which shifted how the administration viewed the 

issue. 

IV. INTELLIGENCE WAS THE "WAKE UP" CALL 

29 .... 1111111 .......................... ~lllll)ll~ ............ .. 30 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with John Brennan. Jm1e 23. 2017. pp. 24-26. 

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(U) Ambassador Rice recalled: 

(U) Within an hour or two of learning of the information, Ambassador Rice advocated 

for the material to be briefed to President Obama.32 "The President's reaction was of grave 

concern," Ambassador Rice recalled, which prompted her to call the first of a series of restricted 

small-group Principals Committee (PC) meetings on the topic. 33 During the meeting with the 

President, Director Brennan also advised the President of a plan to brief key individuals, 

including congressional leadership, but not to disseminate the intelligence via routine reporting 

channels. 34 

(U) Soon thereafter, a PC meeting resulted in the decision to share the information 

briefed by Director Brennan with Congressional leadership and specifically the "Gang of Eight," 

which comprises the Speaker of the House, House Minority Leader, the Chairman and Ranking 

Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), the Senate 

Majority and Minority Leaders, and the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Senate Select 

Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).35 

(U) According to Director Brennan, he recommended that the intelligence be briefed to 

the Gang of Eight, stating, "I think it's important that this be a personal briefing."36 Director 

Brennan did not describe the reaction of any of the individual Gang of Eight members in his 

testimony to the Committee. 

(U) According to Ms. Monaco, Director Brennan was dispatched to brief Congressional 

leadership in early August 2016, which he immediately began to do in a series of one-on-one 

engagements, due to the sensitive nature of the intelligence.37 Ms. Monaco further stated that 

Director Brennan had worked his way through the leadership briefings, completing the last 

briefing with Leader McConnell close to the Labor Day holiday in 2016. 38 

(U) According to CIA and Senate records, Director Brennan briefed House Minority 

Leader Nancy Pelosi on August 11, 2016, HP SCI Ranking Member Adam Schiff on August 17, 

31 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 7. 

32 (U) Ibid, p. 9. 

33 (U) Ibid. 34 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with John Brennan, June 23, 2017, p. 39. 

35 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 11. 36 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with John Brennan, June 23, 2017, p. 39. 37 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, p. 17. 

38 (U) Ibid, pp. 17-18. 

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2016, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on August 25, 2016. The remainder of the Gang 

of Eight-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, SSCI Chairman Richard Burr, SSCI ViceChairman Dianne Feinstein, HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes, and Speaker of the House Paul 

Ryan-were each briefed individually on September 6, 2016.39 

(U) The Committee notes that typically Gang of Eight member notifications occur as a 

group, rather than individually. Because these events unfolded in August, concurrent with the 

August congressional recess, the opportunity to convene a Gang of Eight session in a classified 

setting as a group would not have occurred until September. 

V. (U) DEBATE ON HOW TO RESPOND 

A. (U) The "Small Group" 

(U) According to multiple administration officials, the receipt of the sensitive 

intelligence prompted the NSC to begin a series of restricted PC meetings to craft the 

administration's response to the Russians' active measures campaign. These restricted "small 

group" PC meetings, and the corresponding Deputies Committee (DC) meetings, were atypically 

restricted, and excluded regular PC and DC attendees such as the relevant Senior Directors 

within the NSC and subject matter experts that normally accompanied the principals and 

deputies from U.S. Government departments and agencies. 

(U) According to former NSC Senior Director for Intelligence Programs, Brett 

Holmgren, no one other than the principals participated in the initial PC meetings, due to the 

sensitivity of the intelligence reporting. 40 Mr. Holmgren further stated that the "reports were 

briefed verbally, often times by Director Brennan. So I didn't get access to a lot of those reports 

until the November or December time frame."41 

(U) According to Director Clapper and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations 

Samantha Power, the extraordinarily restricted nature of the meetings and departure from routine 

methods of disseminating intelligence were reminiscent of the highly restricted meetings 

employed prior to the U.S. military operation to capture Osama bin Laden. 42 Deputy Attorney 

General Sally Yates told the Committee that DC meetings related to the Russian interference 

issue would not always be identified in internal scheduling or agenda documents because it was 

considered so sensitive and characterized the meetings as "[v]ery cloak and dagger."43 

39 (U) Response to CapNet E-Mail: Transmittal Form, June 28, 2019; SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing: White 

House Awareness of and Response to Russian Active Measures, July 17, 2018, p. 39. 

40 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Brett Holmgren, November 13, 2017, p. 12. 

41 (U) Ibid. 42 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Samantha Power, July 28, 2017, p. 15; SSCI Transcript of the 

Interview with James Clapper, July 17, 2017, p. 59. 

43 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Sally Yates, August 15, 2017, pp. 28-29. 

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(U) Attendance at the "small group" PCs was restricted to a handful of members of the 

President's cabinet whom Ambassador Rice deemed necessary for the conversation, and 

consisted of the following, though the last two individuals were not included in the first meeting: 

Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Avril Haines; Assistant to the 

President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco; White House Chief of Staff 

Denis McDonough; Attorney General Loretta Lynch; Director of National Intelligence (DNI) 

James Clapper; CIA Director John Brennan; FBI Director James Corney; Secretary of the 

Department for Homeland Security (DHS) Jeh Johnson; and NSA Director Admiral Michael 

Rogers.46 

(U) This list excluded several cabinet level officials who would normally be present for 

national security and policy response activities, including the Secretary of State, the Secretary of 

Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretary of the Treasury. In early 

September the group was expanded to include the Departments of Defense, State, and Treasury, 

to ensure that the full range ofresponse options was being appropriately considered.47 

(U) Several NSC officials who would normally be included in discussions of importance, 

such as the NSC Senior Director for Russia, the Senior Director for Intelligence Programs, and 

the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator were neither included in the discussions nor exposed 

to the sensitive intelligence until after the election. 48 ••I According to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, although only a 

small number of people were aware of the sensitive intelligence, the "small group" 

attendees engaged a larger group of people within their departments and agencies to develop 

potential response options for consideration. 49 

(U) The Committee inquired about public reports that Mr. Daniel and the NSC cyber 

directorate were told to "stand down," and found that the instructions given were consistent with 

Ambassador Rice's desire to keep the group working on response options to the Russian 

interference extremely small. 

44 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, pp. 15-16. 

45 (U) Ibid 46 (U) Ibid, pp. 10-18; SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Denis McDonough, July 18, 2017, pp. 7-8. 47 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 28. 

48 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Celeste Wallander, August 23, 2017, pp. 20-21. 49 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Denis McDonough, July 18, 2017, p. 19. 

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(U) Ambassador Rice testified to the committee that: 

••• Michael Daniel's team had been requested back in June by Lisa 

[Monaco J in the context of the DNC hack to work the cyber response group, 

which is customary, like we did after Sony or in the context of Chinese hacks or 

whatever, to look at potential response options. It was in late August when I 

understood that Michael Daniel 

, a list of potential response options [] 

that was separate and apart from the very small-group process that we were 

~~ .&~~~ef~ 

small-group process that I and my colleagues were running. He had simply 

worked up these options coming out of Lisa [Monaco] 's tasking, had 

disseminated them very widely within the inter-agency, as well as within the NSC, 

to a bunch of people who had no business seeing them. And it was separate from 

my effort to do what my job was, which was to bring together policy options that 

are well-coordinated, well-planned, well-conceived for the President's decision. so 

(U) Rice further stated that she was concerned that too many people were exposed to the 

information and that Mr. Daniel's efforts were not synchronized with the other efforts because he 

was not aware of the restricted small-group activities.51 

(U) When asked about whether the NSC cyber directorate was told to "stand down," Mr. 

Daniel told the Committee: 

I think there was a concern on the part of the senior level at the White House that 

some of the discussions had gotten frankly over-broad, and too many people had 

been brought into those discussions, and so part of that work was to restrictshrink down-the number of people that were involved in developing the response 

options . ... I would say essentially we were told to focus on the defensive work 

and that we basically put other activities on hold. 52 

B. (U) Debate Over Options 

50 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing: White House Awareness of and Response to Russian Active 

Measures, July 17, 2018, pp. 22-23. 

SI (U) Ibid, p. 23. 

52 (U) SSC/ Transcript of the Closed Hearing: Policy Response to Russian Interference in the 2016 US. Elections, 

June 20, 2018, pp. 32-34. 

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(U) Mr. McDonough told the Committee: 

(U) Ms. Monaco, speaking hypothetically about cyber attacks against election 

infrastructure such as voter registration databases, stated, "[M]y worry was, if any of these things 

happen at such scale, you're going to have ... chaos and even leading to potential unrest in some 

precincts."55 

(U) Ambassador Rice categorized those fears into two main categories. The first related 

to future information disclosures, regardless of whether they were based on real or forged 

material, that could be disruptive in terms of manipulating perceptions. The second, and more 

important fear from the NSC perspective, was any Russian effort to "mechanically mess with the 

election infrastructure," to include voter registration and vote tallying in addition to state and 

local infrastructure involved in conducting an election. 56 

-

(U) Regarding voting machines and other election infrastructure, Ambassador Rice 

feared a range of additional actions Putin could take such as affecting votes, altering or deleting 

voter registration data, or falsifying and releasing information online that appeared to be 

authentic. She stated that Secretary Johnson, as the head of DHS, decided to alert states and urge 

the secretaries of state to harden systems associated with their respective election 

infrastructure. 59 

s3 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, p. 31. 

s4 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Denis McDonough, July 18, 2017, pp. 13-14. 

ss (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, p. 33. 

s6 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, pp. 13-14. 

s7 (U) Ibid, p. 12. 

SS (U) Ibid 

s9 (U) Ibid, pp. 11-14. 

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(U) Ms. Monaco also stated that the national security team within the White House 

received clear guidance from President Obama that "first and foremost our priorities were to 

protect the integrity of the election and make sure that any vulnerabilities in the election 

infrastructure and the process, that we do our best to address, working with state and local 

governments."60 The responsibility to shepherd the election integrity effort was Ms. Monaco's 

to execute with DHS. 

(U) Ultimately, the direction outlined by Ambassador Rice translated into the actions 

that the administration undertook, focusing largely on protecting election infrastructure and 

castigating the Russians prior to the election, saving punitive responses until after Moscow's 

abili"t¥ to affect the 2016 election had passed. 

C. (U) Perceived Constraints 

(U) Administration officials described to the Committee the evolution of policy 

discussions behind the decisions they made during the summer of 2016 in responding to the 

Russian active measures campaign. In total, the Committee found that the administration 

operated within the following six general categories of constraints, which affected the response 

options available as well as the timing and sequencing of their implementation: (1) the heavily 

politicized environment; (2) the concern that public warnings would themselves undermine 

public confidence in the election, thereby inadvertently helping the Russian effort; (3) the 

unknown extent to which the Russians could target and manipulate election systems; (4) the 

delay in definitive attribution of some efforts to Russia; (5) the time and resources required to 

compose policy options prior to execution; and (6) challenges in how to address WikiLeaks. 

1. (U) Heavily Politicized Environment 

(U) Administration officials told the Committee that they did not want the response to 

Russian election interference to be seen as a politically motivated action in an already highly 

political environment. They were concerned that warning the public about Russian efforts would 

be interpreted as the White House siding with one candidate. They pointed out in interviews that 

candidate Trump was, at the time, publicly saying that the election would be "rigged." 

• (U) On October 16, 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump publicly tweeted, "The election 

is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary 

- but also at many polling places- SAD."61 The next day, he followed up with a tweet 

stating, "Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day," 

and further reiterated these claims at a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin that 

60 {U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, p. 15. 61 (U) Donald J. Trump, Tweet on October 16, 2016, 1:01 pm., 

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/787699930718695425. 

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evening, stating, "[r]emember, we're competing in a rigged election. This is a rigged 

election process."62 

(U) Mr. McDonough noted that President Obama was traveling nearly every day in 

September and October 2016 in support of candidate Clinton. To emphasize the separation 

between politics and policy, the NSC "went out of [its] way to ensure that there was not a 

partisan veneer to any of the work. "63 Mr. McDonough further stated that the direction issued to 

government agencies, pursuant to White House-convened meetings on Russian interference in 

the 2016 election, included an instruction to handle the issue in a nonpartisan manner.64 

(U) According to Ms. Monaco, the NSC recognized the IC and law enforcement 

community's professional aversion to partisan matters. Ms. Monaco told the Committee that she 

called the Deputy Director of the FBI upon learning of the penetration into the DNC network 

because she was concerned about FBI's "justifiable and appropriate concern when dealing in a 

political climate with a political entity in a political campaign."65 Ms. Monaco recalled that she 

requested that the FBI "not be so cautious that they not raise that up and engage more actively" 

while ensuring that the DNC not be "treated differently" from any other victim of a breach. 66 

(U) Secretary Kerry told the Committee that there was extensive discussion in the White 

House Situation Room, particularly among those who had previously run for office, about how to 

keep politics out of statements made by the White House, especially since President Obama was 

actively campaigning for candidate Clinton. Secretary Kerry also noted that candidate Trump 

was making public assertions about the election being rigged. 67 

(U) Avril Haines, the Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, 

recalled that administration officials quickly discarded any thought of legislation to amplify 

economic sanctions against Russia, and focused on options that could be pursued by executive 

order "[b]ecause we didn't think we would get bipartisan support for legislation, and we didn't 

think that was going to be doable in the time period that we had."68 

62 (U) Donald J. Trump, Tweet on October 17, 2016, 8:33 a.m., 

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/787995025527410688; Donald Trump Campaign Event in Green Bay, 

Wisconsin, October 17, 2016, https://www.c-span.org/video/?417019-1/donald-trump-campaigns-green-baywisconsin, 00:13:30. 63 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Denis McDonough, July 18, 2017, p. 25. 

64 (U) Ibid, p. 27. 65 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, p. 90. 

66 (U) Ibid 67 (U) SSCI Memorandum for the Record: Interview with Former Secretary of State, John Kerry, November 8, 

2017,p.5. 

68 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Avril Haines, August 10, 2017, p. 49. 

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2. (U) Concern that Public Warnings Could Undermine Confidence in the Election 

(U) Several administration officials told the Committee that they felt constrained by 

worries that warning the American public would trigger the very thing they were trying to 

prevent: the public questioning the integrity of the election. Some in those policy debates argued 

for exposing Russian activities to reduce their effectiveness. Others, including some in the 

administration and some in Congress, worried that such warnings would create the public 

impression that the elections were compromised and would essentially amplify Russia's tactics. 

• (U) Mr. McDonough stated that the administration had to be careful about "not doing the 

Russians' dirty work for them."69 He also expressed concern that any actions taken by 

the administration prior to the election might be perceived as partisan in nature and 

reduce the American people's confidence in the election process. These concerns 

influenced the White House's decision to not take any overt action in response to 

Russia's activities.70 

• (U) Ambassador Rice similarly stated that the administration was "very concerned about 

doing the Russians' dirty work for them ... to sow concern, confusion, distrust in our 

electoral institutions and the integrity of our election, that for us to take such actions 

would only play into their desire to scare people, basically, about the election."71 

• (U) Ms. Monaco told the Committee that the administration was very concerned about 

not sowing distrust in the electoral system "because we did not want to, as we described 

it, do the Russians' work for them by sowing panic about the vulnerability of the 

election. "72 

• (U) Director Clapper told the Committee that: 

The major concern I think in the White House was, if we do something or say 

something, particularly publicly, about this, are we amping it up? Are we then 

dignifying what the Russians are doing and hyping it even more in the minds of 

the public? And as well, I think, concern about putting a hand on the scale by 

saying something public, that the Russians were clearly trying to manipulate the 

election and do so in favor of one of the candidates, and of course, the political 

firestorm that that could generate. 73 

69 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Denis McDonough, July 18, 2017, p. 52. 

70 (U) Ibid 71 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 51. 

72 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, p. 29. 

73 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with James Clapper, July 17, 2017, p. 18. 

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3. 

(U) In late smlllller 2016, DHS was just beginning to understand the threat Russia posed 

to state election systems, and the absence of a comprehensive awareness of Russian activity 

mandated that they assume the worst-case scenario. Several officials told the Committee that, at 

the time. they were deeply concemed about the possibility that Russia had the capability to 

change individual votes or modify vote totals. Compotmding those concems, some officials 

raised the prospect that Moscow could retaliate for any U.S. ptmitive measures by using that 

capability. The administration decided to confront Putin directly, threaten retaliation for 

additional interference, and then to retaliate if evidence was discovered that Moscow continued 

its activities . 

• 

that "much more could be done 

[by Russia]. and therefore we wanted to deter Putin from doing more and all that he 

could."74 She further stated that the administration was concemed about the Russians 

leaking falsified infomiation, further public dissemination of illicitly obtained 

infonnation, and that Moscow could use 

against election infrastmcture. "We didn't want to preemptively poke the homet's nest 

and prompt them to do more."75 

• (U) One of Ms. Monaco's p1imary fears was that the Russians would modify voter 

registration databases to invalidate voters, which if perfo1med on a large enough scale. 

could lead to chaos and confusion at polling places as well as a lack of confidence in the 

voting system. 76 

• (U) Ms. Monaco and Ambassador Rice were not alone in their concems. Director 

Brennan told the Committee: 

I was concerned about what the Russians might have up their sleeve a11d what 

they could do, because it's 11ot just dealing in a foreign theater, where we make a 

chess move aud they make a chess move . ... I didn't know what the Russians 

might stoop to and so I did not have great ideas at all about if we do this it's 

real~v going to have that salutmy effect. 77 

4. (U) Delay in Publicly Attributing Some Efforts to Russia 

~ Senior administration officials told the Committee that they hesitated to publicly 

attiibute the cyber effo11s to Russia m1til they had sufficient information on the penetration of the 

DNC network and the subsequent disclosure of stolen info1mation via WikiLeaks, DCLeaks, and 

74 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice. July 12. 2017. p. 13. 

75 (U) Ibid .• pp. 13-14. 

76 (U) SSC! Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco. August 10. 2017. p. 28. 77 (U) SSC'I Tra11sc1ipt of the Interview with Jolm 0. Bl'ennan: July 23. 2017. pp. 56-57. 

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(U) Ambassador Rice stated that the NSC, via the restricted PC and DC meetings, was 

encouraging the IC to "come to a unified, high-confidence conclusion as to what this inte1ference 

was and wasn't." She noted. "[t]hat took longer than we would have hoped or anticipated. But 

you couldn't have it bad: you had to have it when it was done and ready, and that was the !Cs to 

detenuine. "81 

(U) Ms. Haines told the Committee that in the restricted NSC meetings: 

[E]veryboczv knew we had ro fi11d a w~v to make this as public as possible and do 

so sensitive to all tile equities that everybody fwd, but also do it at a time when the 

!111ellige11ce Co1111111111ity actual~v had so111et'1i11g to s~v with co11fide11ce, because 

real~v you don't wallt to put so111et/Ji11g Hke that out there a11d then !rave to walk 

a11_v aspect of it back. There were alreaczv enough credib;!ity issues i11 the context 

of the political season. So we wanted it to be absolute~v solid. 82 

(U) Ms. Monaco recalled several officials including herself, Director Brennan, and 

Secretary Johnson answering questions in several public fonuns regarding intrusions into U.S. 

78 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing: Russian Active Measures. November 17. 2016. p. 73. 

79 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with James R. Clapper. July 17. 2017. pp. 18-19. 

so (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jolm 0. Brennan. June 23. 2017. pp. 78-79. 

81 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice. July 12. 2017. pp. 37-38. 

81 (e) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Avril Haines. August 10. 2017. p. 66. 

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election processes and systems during the summer of 2016. She recalled that administration 

officials issued largely general responses, stating that the answer was frequently "intrusions into 

our election process would be a very significant event and that the process of attribution is one 

that [the United States] takes very seriously."83 • 

(U) Mr. Daniel noted for the Committee that conflicting cultures at member agencies of 

the IC commonly result in delays in the release of attribution statements, particularly with 

respect to ascribing the confidence level with which a statement can be made. 84 

(U) Secretary Johnson recalled that, as of October 1, 2016, "[a]s an administration we 

had not reached the conclusion, yes, we will attribute to Russia, and who's going to do it."85 

5. (U) Time and Resources Required to Compose Policy Options Prior to Execution 

(U) While some policy options were ready to execute on short notice-in part because 

they had been developed, but not used, in response to earlier acts of Russian aggression-a more 

comprehensive set of options took time to formulate and prepare. The extremely restricted 

nature of the discussions by cabinet level officials hampered the administration's ability to 

prepare complex response options. Policymakers were also concerned about escalation and 

believed their options for sending a nuanced message to Moscow prior to the election were 

limited. 

(U) Mr. McDonough stated that he did not recall any specific proposals for pre-election 

response actions though he noted that "it was a decision to not act before the election ... 

although there was work that we had to do, which obviously informed then the timing of when 

we do take the steps we take in December."86 

(U) Ambassador Rice told the Committee that in the fall of 2016, the interagency process 

"continued to work up these potential response options" to have "them sufficiently baked so that 

if we had to ... punish the Russians prior to the election ... we were going to be in a position to 

do so relatively quickly."87 She went on to state that in October 2016, the administration was 

continuing to prepare response options, consciously deciding that "absent further indications of 

Russian interference, we would bake these options to 300 [degrees] and take them to 375 

[degrees] after the election, and then they'd be done."88 

83 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, pp. 13-14. 84 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with J. Michael Daniel, August 31, 2017, p. 78. 

85 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, p. 30. 86 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Denis McDonough, July 18, 2017, p. 38. 87 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 36. 

88 (U) Ibid, p. 55. 

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6. (U) WikiLeaks 

(U) The executive branch struggled to develop a complete understanding of WikiLeaks. 

Some officials viewed WikiLeaks as a legitimate news outlet, while others viewed WikiLeaks as 

a hostile organization acting intentionally and deliberately to undermine U.S. or allies' interests . 

• 

• 

• 

• General Paul Selva, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the 

Committee that, 

89 (U) Ibid, p. 61. 90 

91 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing: White House Awareness of and Response to Russian Active 

Measures, July 17, 2018, p. 119. 92 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Benjamin J. Rhodes, July 25, 2017, p. 51. 

93 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with J. Michael Daniel, August 31, 2017, pp. 94-95. 

94 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with General Paul Selva, September 15, 2017, p. 26. 

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• 

-

• 

VI. (U) PRE-ELECTION ACTIONS 

(U) Actions unde11aken prior to the November 8, 2016, presidential election were limited 

to admonishing the Russians at various levels. providing federal assistance to secure state 

election infrastructure. and issuing a public statement attributing the penetration of the DNC and 

the disclosure of illicitly obtained inf01mation to Moscow. 

(U) Several administration officials told the Committee that they believed they had 

exhausted the 11on-escalat01y actions they could take prior to the election, primarily because they 

did not know the foll range of Moscow's capabilities and were fearfol that the Russians might 

attempt to affect electoral infrastrncture. For example, Ambassador Rice told the Committee: 

{lYJ}y view was that we were right to put emphasis 011 trying to Take the 

partisanship out of this ve1:i1 charged set of revelario11s i11 a ve1:i1 difficult 

atmosphere. I think we were right to put emphasis 011 hardening the states a11d 

malting sure that the 111echa11ics of our system were mm..imal~v defe11ded. I rhi11k 

we were right to try to deter the R11ssia11sfi'0111 doing more, and my u11dersta11di11g 

95 (l) SSCI Transcript of the lnteniew with Admiral Michael S. Rogers. March 19. 2018. pp. 17-18. 

96 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing: Russian Active Measures. November 17. 2016. pp. 23-26. 

97 ........................................ .

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is, as I said, that we had reason to believe they were in a position to do more and 

decided not to, which would lead me to conclude, although one can't be 100 

percent sure of this, that our deterrence had some effect. 98 

A. (U) Warnings to Moscow 

(U) The administration delivered at least five direct warnings to various levels of the 

Russian government. Two of those warnings were direct messages from President Obama to 

President Putin, including an in-person confrontation at the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, on 

September 5, 2016. Another in-person warning was issued by Ambassador Rice to the Russian 

ambassador to the United States on October 7, 2016, accompanied by the delivery of an 

additional written message from President Obama to be passed directly to President Putin. An 

additional two warnings occurred on the margins of already scheduled, senior bilateral 

engagements, one involving Secretary Kerry and the other involving Director Brennan. A final 

warning involved using the "cyber hotline," a communications channel between the U.S. and 

Russian governments that had not previously been used. 

1. (U) Secretary Kerry and Minister Lavrov 

2. (U) Directors Brennan and Bortnikov 

(U) Director Brennan publicly testified that he spoke with Alexander Bortnikov, the head 

of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), on August 4, 2016, during a previously scheduled 

phone call to discuss Syria and counterterrorism issues. On the call, Brennan raised the issue of 

"the continued mistreatment and harassment of U.S. diplomats in Moscow," which he described 

as "irresponsible, reckless, intolerable, and needed to stop." 100 Director Brennan also raised the 

issue of Russia's attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and recalled "[he] warned 

Mr. Bortnikov that if Russia pursued this course, it would destroy any near-term prospect for 

improvement in relations between Washington and Moscow and would undermine constructive 

engagement even on matters of mutual interest." Director Brennan stated that Mr. Bortnikov 

98 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 87. 

99 (U) SSCI Memorandum for the Record: Interview with Former Secretary of State, John Kerry, November 8, 

2017, p. 4. 100 (U) Transcript, House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee Holds Hearing on Russia Investigation, May 23, 

2017, http://www.cq.com/doc/congressionaltranscripts-5108530. 

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denied that Russia was doing anything to influence the election and also accused Washington of 

conducting similar activities against elections in Russia. IOI When Director Brennan repeated the 

warning, Brennan recalled that Mr. Bortnikov "again denied the charge but said that he would 

inform President Putin of my comments."Ioz 

3. (U) Presidents Obama and Putin 

(U) Ambassador Rice, with input from other senior administration officials, 

recommended to President Obama that he issue a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin at 

the 020 Summit in Hangzhou, China. She recalled that the 020 summit was: 

the best target of opportunity to put the finger right into Putin 's chest and tell him 

that we knew what he was doing, that it needs to stop, and that if there were 

further indications that they had taken steps beyond what we knew they had 

already done, that there would be serious consequences for the Russians. Io3 

OJ The message was carefully crafted and coordinated with members of the small 

group of principals. It was ultimately delivered by President Obama to President Putin at the 

conclusion of a bilateral meeting held during the 020 summit, with only interpreters and the two 

heads of state present. 105 While subsequent news media reporting claims specific threats were 

made, Ambassador Rice told the Committee that the consequences for the Russians were 

purposely left ambiguous by the President in an effort to intimate that a range of diplomatic, 

economic, options were available to use in response to Russia. I06 

(U) Ambassador Rice stated that, "[t]he President characterized Putin as being dishonest 

and obfuscating, denying any Russian involvement, criticizing the United States for interfering in 

Russian electoral processes and fomenting Orange revolutions in their territory." She further 

stated that Putin's response was an "energetic" and "non-substantive" denial.107 

IOI (U) Ibid 

102 (U) Ibid 103 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 24. 

104 (U) Ibid, p. 26. 

105 (U) Ibid, p. 26; SSCI Memorandum for the Record: Interview with Former Secretary of State, John Kerry, 

November 8, 2017, p. 4. 106 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, pp. 27-28. 

107 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing: White House Awareness of and Response to Russian Active 

Measures, July 17, 2018, pp. 91-92. 

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4. (U) Ambassadors Rice and Kislyak 

(U) On the same day as the issuance of the ODNI-DHS public statement on October 7. 

2016 (see infra), Ambassador Rice called Sergey Kislyak. the Russian Ambassador to the United 

States, to her office to deliver a verbal message and pass a written message from President 

Obama to President Putin. The written message was a more specific warning that contained "the 

kind<; of consequences that he could anticipate would be powerfully in1pactful to their economy 

and far exceed anything that he had seen to date."108 According to Ambassador Rice, such a 

meeting was not a regular occmTence. nor was the passage of a written note from President 

Obama to be delivered directly to President Putin. The exchange was scheduled to occm· just 

prior to the release of the ODNI-DHS statement.109 

(U) Approximately a week after the October 7. 2016. meeting, Ambassador Kislyak 

asked to meet with Ambassador Rice to deliver Putin's response. The response, as characterized 

by Ambassador Rice, was "denial and obfuscation," and "[t]he only thing notable about it is that 

Putin somehow deemed it necessary to mention the obvious fact that Russia remains a nuclear 

power."113 

5. (U) The Cyber Hotline 

108 (U) SSC'! Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice. July 12. 2017. p. 46. 

109 (U) Ibid .. p. 47. 

110 (L) Ibid .• p. 48. 111 (LT) SSC'I Transcript of the Closed Hearing: "White House Awareness of and Response to Russian Active 

Measures. July 17. 2018. pp. 92-93. 

112 (U) SSC! Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice. July 12. 2017. p. 48. 

113 (L') Ibid .. pp. 55-56. 

114 (U) In Jw1e 2013. the U.S. and Russian govemments agreed to strengthen relations between the two cow1tries as 

it relates to In:fonnation and C'omnumications Technologies (IC'Ts). The two govemments concluded ai1 agreement 

which included three confidence building measures between the two cow1tries: ( 1) the creation of a cormmmications 

cha1mel and infonnation sharing agreements between the cow1tries' computer emergency response teams: (2) 

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Ambassador Rice viewed the use of this particular communications line as not escalatory, but 

rather a means to address the frequent Russian objection that standard, official channels were not 

being used to convey messages. From the U.S. side, however, the message was considered 

delivered when President Obama met with President Putin in September 2016. 115 

(U) The initial undated message sent via the cyber hotline alluded to information 

contained in the October 7, 2016, ODNI-DHS statement, as well as the scanning of state election 

infrastructure. It further stated: 

116 

(U) In total, the Committee is aware of eight messages transmitted, four by each side, as 

part of the exchange, but only three messages contain substantive information. In addition to the 

first message, the United States sent Russia additional technical information regarding the 

malicious cyber activity. 117 

(U) In responding, Moscow denied any connection between the activities raised in the 

U.S. messages and Russia, adding that it too had been victim to some of the same cyber 

activity. 118 

authorization to use the existing direct communications link between the two countries' Nuclear Risk Reduction 

Centers; and (3) establishment of a direct communications link between senior White House and Kremlin officials to 

manage potentially dangerous situations from I CT-related events. See Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin, "Joint 

Statement by the Presidents of the United States of America and the Russian Federation on a New Field of 

Cooperation in Confidence Building", June 17, 2013, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-pressoffice/2013/06/17 /joint-statement-presidents-united-states-america-and-russian-federatio-0. 

115 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, pp. 44-45. 

116 (U) Department of State letter to Chairman Burr and Vice-Chairman Warner, Cyber Hotline Production, July 27, 

2018, pp. 3-4 also marked as CDP-2017-000l lG-000183---CDP-2017-000l lG-000184. 

117 (U) Ibid, pp. 3-21 also marked as CDP-2017-000llG-000183---CDP-2017-000l lG-000201. 

118 (U) Ibid 

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B. (U) Protecting Election Infrastructure 

(U) In line with President Obama's mandate to protect the integrity of the election, 

Secretary Johnson first broached the idea of designating election infrastructure as a "critical 

infrastructure" sector at a press breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor on August 

3, 2016. 119 

(U) Secretary Johnson subsequently had a conference call with representatives from all 

50 states, including secretaries of state or other senior election officials, on August 15, 2016. 120 

During that call, Secretary Johnson informed state election officials that while DHS did not 

currently have a specific or credible threat targeting the election systems themselves, DHS was 

in a heightened state of awareness regarding election infrastructure and recommended that they 

each "do everything you can for your own cyber security leading up to the election." 121 

(U) Secretary Johnson also raised the possibility of designating election infrastructure as 

critical infrastructure, but recalled that he received opposition from a number of states. 122 Some 

state election officials, in rejecting the idea, cited federal government interference in a state 

function as a major concern over the potential designation. Secretary Johnson was taken aback 

by these responses, stating that, "among those that spoke up, I was surprised and disappointed 

that there was this resistance." 123 

(U) Based on the negative feedback he received, Secretary Johnson concluded that "it 

was better for our cyber security around the election system if I put the critical infrastructure 

designation on the back burner" and instead continued to urge the states to request DHS 

services. 124 

(U) Following Secretary Johnson's phone call, DHS issued a public statement recapping 

the conversation with members of the National Association of Secretaries of State and other 

Chief Election Officials. The statement reinforced DHS's recommendation that states focus on 

securing election infrastructure and offered cybersecurity support from DHS's National 

Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. The statement did not include any 

mention of threats posed by Russia against electoral infrastructure and carefully touched on the 

topic of designating election infrastructure as critical infrastructure, stating: 

119 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jeh Johnson; June 12, 2017, p. 10. 

120 (U) The Committee notes that Secretary Johnson's engagements with state officials occurred prior to the 

September 8, 2016, congressional briefing where the issue of state election security was raised. 

121 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, p. 13. 

122 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 21; for more information on Secretary 

Johnson's designation of election infrastructure as critical infrastructure, see Volume 1: Russian Efforts Against 

Election infrastructure, July 25, 2019. 

123 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, p. 14. 

124 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, p. 15. 

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DHS is exploring all ways to deliver more support to the sector in a collaborative 

and non-prescriptive manner, and would be examining whether designating 

certain electoral systems as critical infrastructure would be an effective way to 

offer this support. 125 

(U) While Secretary Johnson decided to not proceed with the designation of election 

infrastructure as critical infrastructure, DHS devised a plan to provide similar services without 

necessitating the designation. According to Secretary Johnson, under this plan DHS could 

"deliver to the states almost everything that you could if there was a critical infrastructure 

designation." 126 

(U) In addition to DHS efforts to protect state election infrastructure, and perhaps in 

response to the reaction received by Secretary Johnson in his earlier attempts to engage the 

states, the administration decided in early September to engage Congress on the issue to help 

assuage states' concerns about federal reach into the election process. 

(U) Secretary Johnson also continued to issue public statements on election security 

throughout the fall of2016. 

• (U) On September 16, 2016, Secretary Johnson released a statement concerning the 

Cybersecurity of the Nation's Election Systems. In the statement, Secretary Johnson 

acknowledged the existence of"cyber intrusions involving political institutions and 

personal communications," as well as "some efforts at cyber intrusions of voter 

registration data maintained in state election systems."127 Similar to the statement issued 

after the call with the state election officials, the statement reinforced that "DHS 

assistance is strictly voluntary and does not entail regulation, binding directives, and is 

not offered to supersede state and local control over the process."128 

• (U) On October 1, 2016, Secretary Johnson issued a statement thanking the House of 

Representatives and Senate leadership for sending a letter to the National Association of 

State Election Directors. 129 This statement again reinforced that DHS's assistance does 

not entail federal regulation or "binding federal directives over state systems of any 

kind."130 The statement again confirmed that DHS had observed malicious cyber 

activity, including successful intrusions into some state systems. The statement closed 

125 (U) "Readout of Secretary Johnson's Call with State Election Officials on Cybersecurity," August 15, 2016, 

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/08/15/readout-secretary-johnsons-call-state-election-officials-cybersecurity. 

126 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, p. 18. 127 (U) "Statement by Secretary Johnson Concerning the Cybersecurity of the Nation's Election Systems," 

September 16, 2016, https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/09/16/statement-secretary-johnson-conceming-cybersecuritynation' s-election-systems. 128 (U) Ibid 129 (U) "Statement by Secretary Johnson About Election Systems' Cybersecurity," October 1, 2016, 

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/10/01/statement-secretary-j ohnson-about-election-systems-cybersecurity. 

130 (U) Ibid 

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with an advisement to state and local election officials to seek the assistance ofDHS, 

indicating that 21 states had contacted DHS thus far. 

• (U) On October 10, 2016, Secretary Johnson issued a statement which indicated that 33 

state and 11 county or local election agencies had sought DHS assistance.131 The 

statement also sought to raise awareness of cybersecurity threats, highlighting that there 

were only 29 days until Election Day and that the process by which DHS could conduct a 

scan and assist local officials in mitigating any discovered vulnerabilities would take at 

least three weeks. 132 

(U) Secretary Johnson told the Committee that he also called the Chief Executive Officer 

of the Associated Press (AP) to ensure their systems were protected from any cyber meddling the 

Russians might try to conduct on Election Day because he believed the AP had an effective 

monopoly on delivering election night returns to the news organizations. According to Secretary 

Johnson, the Chief Executive Officer assured him that the AP had enough redundancy in its 

communications systems that reporting could still be transmitted, even if by courier, if internet 

communications were unavailable. 133 

(U) DHS also established a crisis action response team to address any problem or 

incidents that may have arisen on Election Day. 134 

C. (U) Congressional Statements 

(U) Administration officials who spoke to the Committee repeatedly stressed their 

attempts to be scrupulously nonpartisan in their approach with Congress and state election 

officials due to the highly charged political environment of the 2016 presidential election, an 

aspiration complicated by the fact that the President and Vice President were actively 

campaigning in support of one candidate. 

• (U) Ambassador Rice stated, "[W]e were hell-bent and determined to try to do this in a 

way that was apolitical as possible. Again, that's why we put such emphasis on trying to 

invest and enlist the leadership of Congress to reinforce the messages that we were trying 

to deliver, particularly to the states."135 

• (U) Mr. McDonough told the Committee the administration needed a bipartisan 

statement from Congress to help state and local authorities understand the threat and 

131 (U) "Update by Secretary Johnson on DHS Election Cybersecurity Services," October 10, 2016, 

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/10/10/update-secretary-johnson-dhs-election-cybersecurity-services. 

132 (U) Ibid 133 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, pp. 40-41. 

134 (U) Ibid' p. 41. 135 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 23. 

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engage with the federal government to protect their election systems. 136 These 

engagements occurred after Secretary Johnson's phone call with state officials on August 

15, 2016, during which Secretary Johnson's raising the possibility of designating election 

infrastructure as critical infrastructure was met with resistance. 

(U) On September 8, 2016, Ms. Monaco, Director Corney, and Secretary Johnson briefed 

the Gang of Eight and the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Homeland Security 

Committees from the House of Representatives and the Senate. 137 Secretary Johnson told the 

Committee that although the briefing provided to the group was not at the highest classification 

level (i.e., it did not contain the details of the sensitive intelligence collection which had only 

been briefed to the Gang of Eight), it was clear to him that certain members were receiving the 

classified intelligence briefing from the IC and law enforcement for the first time. 138 It was 

during this briefing that administration officials discussed the issuance of a bipartisan statement, 

which they hoped would convince state and local officials to avail themselves of the 

cybersecurity services being offered by DHS to secure and protect election infrastructure. 139 

Director Corney briefed on what FBI was observing and "described in some detail specific 

Russian malicious activity," and Secretary Johnson detailed assistance that DHS could provide to 

state and local election infrastructure operators, including those services potentially available as 

a result of a designation of election infrastructure as critical infrastructure. 140 

(U) Numerous administration officials stated some members of Congress that attended 

the September 8, 2016, meeting resisted the administration request that a bipartisan statement be 

made regarding Russia being responsible for interference activities. 

Ms. Monaco recalled Senate Majority Leader McConnell stating "[y]ou security 

people should be careful that you're not getting used," which she interpreted as suggestive that 

the intelligence regarding Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 elections was being inflated or 

used for partisan ends. 141 According to Ms. Monaco, the interaction with Senate Majority 

136 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Denis McDonough, July 18, 2017, pp. 14-16. 

137 (U) Ibid; SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing: White House Awareness of and Response to Russian Active 

Measures, July 17, 2018, p. 40. 138 

139 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Denis McDonough, July 18, 2017, p. 1 O; SSCI Transcript of the 

Interview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, p. 21. 

140 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, pp. 45-46; SSCI Transcript of the 

Closed Hearing: White House Awareness of and Response to Russian Active Measures, July 17, 2018, pp. 39-42. 141 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, pp. 47-48. 

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Leader McConnell comported with Director Brennan's account of his interaction with Senate 

Majority Leader McConnell when briefing the 142 

(U) In a July 17, 2018, closed Committee hearing examining the Obama administration's 

response to Russian interference in the 2016 election, Senator Burr, who was present for the 

September 8, 2016, meeting as the Committee's Chairman, responded to Ms. Monaco and stated, 

"[T]he question that [Senate Majority Leader McConnell] raised was: Would this not contribute 

to Russia's efforts at creating concerns about our election process, ifthe leadership of the 

Congress put that letter out?"143 

(U) Following his trip to the 020 summit in China, and in the second week of 

September, President Obama met with House and Senate leadership at the White House. 144 The 

publicly stated purpose for the meeting was to discuss the government's budget and to provide 

the congressional leadership with a back-brief on the 020 summit. 145 However, according to 

Ambassador Rice, the primary purpose of the meeting was to bring the leaders together to 

discuss Russian interference in the election and tell them that ''we need to come together and 

address this as two branches and two parties," with the goal of having them collectively issue a 

joint public statement. 146 

(U) Prior to the issuance of a bipartisan statement to election officials, Senator Feinstein, 

then serving as Vice Chairman of the Committee, and Representative Adam Schiff, the Ranking 

Member of the HPSCI, issued a statement on September 22, 2016, stating that they both 

"concluded that Russian intelligence agencies are making a serious and concerted effort to 

influence the U.S. election" and that the "effort is intended to sow doubt about the security of our 

election and may well be intended to influence the outcomes of the election."147 Their statement 

was the first government communication publicly attributing cyber activity to Russian actors, 

and until December 29, 2016, when DHS and FBI issued a Joint Analysis Report and President 

Obama amended Executive Order (EO) 13964 to authorize sanctions on individuals who "tamper 

with, alter, or cause a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering 

with or undermining election processes or institutions," the only public statement of attribution 

linking the election influence effort to Russia's intelligence services. 148•

149 

142 (U) Ibid 143 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing: White House Awareness of and Response to Russian Active 

Measures, July 17, 2018, p. 45. 

144 (U) Ibid, p. 9. 145 (U) Ibid 146 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 37. 

147 (U) Dianne Feinstein and Adam Schiff, "Feinstein, Schiff Statement on Russian Hacking," September 22, 2016, 

https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=A04D321E-5F86-4FD6-AD8E7F533ElC2845. 

148 (U) DHS and FBI, GRIZZLY STEPPE-Russian Malicious Cyber Activity, December 29, 2016, https://www.uscert.gov/sites/default/publications/JAR_16-20296A_ GRIZZL Y%20STEPPE-2016-1229 .pelf. 

149 (U) The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Statement by the President on Actions in Response to 

Russian Malicious Cyber Activity and Harassment, December 29, 2016. 

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(U) The leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate eventually wrote a letter 

to the president of the National Association of State Election Directors on September 28, 2016, 

highlighting the "challenge of malefactors that are seeking to use cyberattacks to disrupt the 

administration of our elections" and further encouraged states to take advantage of public and 

private sector resources to protect network infrastructure from cyber attacks. 150 The letter further 

made clear that DHS was ready to provide assistance to states that requested it, and that the 

assistance would not be encumbered with federal regulation or federal directives. 151 The letter, 

however, also stated, "[W]e oppose any effort by the federal government to exercise any degree 

of control over the states' administration of elections by designating these systems as critical 

infrastructure." 152 The letter did not reference Russian cyber activities. 

(U) According to Avril Haines, the Deputy Assistant to the President for National 

Security Affairs, the perceived difficulty in obtaining a bipartisan leadership letter from 

Congress to get the states to engage on the issue of protecting electoral infrastructure left the 

NSC "disappointed." As a result, Ms. Haines said, "we tempered our response options." 153 

D. (U) The October 7, 2016, ODNI-DHS Statement 

(U) As the restricted PC meetings occurred through September 2016, participants 

continued to believe a public statement that attributed the cyber activity to the Russian 

government had to be made. 154 In addition to determining how to present the content, the 

question that senior advisors debated was who would issue such a statement. 155 

• (U) Secretary Johnson characterized the decision to release a statement on attribution 

was a "very, very big decision." 156 He further stated that the intent of the statement 

would be the IC publicly attributing the cyber activity to the Russian government, 

coupled with DHS addressing how the interference would be defended against. Secretary 

Johnson believed that DHS should do more than just alerting the public, but should 

provide direction, i.e., "here's what you should do about it, here's what we are doing 

about it."157 

• (U) During one meeting in the White House Situation Room, Director Clapper passed 

Secretary Johnson a written note suggesting that the two of them issue a joint statement, 

150 (U) Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Harry Reid, Letter to Todd Valentine, President of the 

National Association of State Election Directors, September 28, 2016, 

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3872866-Read-McConnell-and-other-congressional-leaders.html. 

151 (U) Ibid. 

152 (U) Ibid. 153 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Avril Haines, August 10, 2017, p. 94. 

154 (U) SSCI Transcript oflnterview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, p. 26. 

155 (U) Ibid. 156 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, p. 31. 

157 (U) Ibid. 

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rather than issuing parallel ones. 158 This moment was the genesis for the October 7, 

2016, joint statement by the DNI and DHS Secretary, with the first paragraph written by 

the IC and the second paragraph written by DHS. 159 

(U) According to Ambassador Rice, Director Corney wanted to issue an op-ed in 

September on the topic of Russian interference in the election. 160 After a series of discussions, 

the restricted PC group decided that it was best to release a joint statement from ODNI and DHS, 

mainly because the ODNI represented the entire IC, rather than a single element, and because a 

public statement seemed to be more appropriate than an op-ed. By October, however, while the 

senior officials would have preferred that FBI join the ODNI-DHS joint statement, the FBI 

Director thought it would be "untimely and probably inappropriate for FBI to sign onto such a 

statement," even though he supported both the content and issuance of the statement. 161 

(U) Deputy Director McCabe told the Committee that he believed "Director Corney felt 

that [the op-ed] was important to do when he suggested it." However, "[b ]y the time he kind of 

got around to thinking about it seriously, he felt like the opportunity had passed and we were too 

close [to the election] at that point to have the intended effect on the electorate."162 

Ms. Monaco testified to the Committee that the proposed op-ed by Director 

Corney would have been focused on attributing the penetration of the DNC network, ••• 

•••••••••••••••••••••. She also stated, however, that the 

proposed op-ed did not comport with FBI' s previous history of issuing formal statements 

regarding attribution of cyber actors, such as when FBI attributed the cyber attack on Sony 

Pictures Entertainment to the DPRK. 163 

(U) The DNI and DHS Secretary issued an unprecedented joint statement on October 7, 

2016, stating: 

The US. Intelligence Community is confident that the Russian Government 

directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, 

including.from US political organizations .... Some states have also recently seen 

scanning and probing of their election-related systems, which in most cases 

originated.from servers operated by a Russian company. However, we are not 

now in a position to attribute this activity to the Russian Government. The USJC 

and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assess that it would be 

158 (U) Ibid. 159 (U) Ibid, p. 33. 

160 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 39. 

161 (U) Ibid, p. 40. 

162 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Andrew McCabe, February 14, 2018, p. 217. 

163 (U) SSC! Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, pp. 65-67. 

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extremely difficult for someone, including a nation-state actor, to alter actual 

ballot counts or election results by cyber attack or intrusion. 164 

(U) Secretary Johnson was convinced that the statement would be "above-the-fold news" 

because the United States had "never before accused a superpower of meddling in our political 

system" and doesn't "normally speak in such blunt terms." 165 The public reaction compared to 

what the administration anticipated, however, was muted. 

(U) According to open source information, the joint ODNI-DHS statement was issued at 

approximately 3:30 p.m. EDT on October 7, 2016. At 4:03 p.m. EDT, the Washington Post 

released the Access Hollywood videotape. Approximately 30 minutes later, WikiLeaks released 

e-mails purportedly from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager. 

E. (U) Effects of Pre-Election Actions 

(U) Following the delivered warnings, particularly the one issued by President Obama at 

the G20 summit, the administration sought to ascertain whether the Russians would continue 

their actions and further interfere in the 2016 presidential election process. 166 According to 

Ambassador Rice, "[W]e did not see any indications in the run-up to and including the election 

that they had hacked more stuff [or] falsified information."167 She further told the Committee 

that she believed that the release of information by WikiLeaks, including John Podesta' s e-mails, 

was information already in the possession of the Russians: "The horse had left the barn."168 She 

also stated that if additional intrusions had been detected, the United States would have 

responded with a combination of actions that had been developed through the restricted PC 

process. 

(U) According to Ambassador Rice, the restricted PC group did discuss taking punitive 

action prior to the election, regardless of whether additional Russian cyber activity was detected. 

The administration decided, however, to not proceed out of concern about provoking the 

Russians to undertake additional activity. 169 

164 (U) James Clapper and Jeh Johnson, "Joint Statement from the Department of Homeland Security and Office of 

the Director ofNational Intelligence on Election Security," October 7, 2016, 

https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-2016/item/163 5-joint-dhs-and-odnielection-security-statement. 

165 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, p. 35. 

166 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 50. 

167 (U) Ibid. 168 (U) Ibid. 169 (U) Ibid., p. 51. 

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(U) Ms. Haines told the Committee that she similarly judged that the warning message 

from President Obama to President Putin had a deterrent effect on stopping the Russians moving 

forward with "actually manipulating the vote and the voting process."170 

(U) Subsequent to the 2016 election, however, intelligence and other information has 

revealed that Russian cyber actors did in fact engage in significant additional cyber activity 

following the warning delivered by President Obama to President Putin during the G20 summit 

in early September and prior to the election. 

• (U) As late as October, GRU cyber actors conducted penetration testing on state and 

county election infrastructure. For example, GRU cyber actors visited the websites of 

counties in Georgia, Iowa, and Florida to identify vulnerabilities. 171 

• (U) Days before the election, GRU cyber actors sent over 100 spearphishing emails to 

election officials and organizations in numerous Florida counties. These emails 

contained malware designed to look like a legitimate election infrastructure vendor. 172 

• 

VII. (U) POST-ELECTION 

-

ACTIONS 

(U) Following the election, administration officials told the Committee that they were no 

longer constrained by fears that the Russians would further meddle in the election. The NSC 

continued to convene policy meetings to discuss response options, and ultimately executed a 

series of actions.174 

(U) The Committee heard from several administration officials that the response options 

were still being debated and calibrated post-election to maximize effectiveness while minimizing 

170 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing: White House Awareness of and Response to Russian Active 

Measures, July 17, 2018, pp. 30-31. 

171 (U) Indictment, United States v. Viktor Borisovich Netybho, et al., Case 1:18-cr-00215-ABJ (D.D.C. July 13, 

2018). 

172 (U) Ibid For a more comprehensive account of Russian activity against state and local election infrastructure, 

see Volume 1: Russian Efforts Against Election Infrastructure, July 25, 2019. 173 (U) DHS briefing for SSCI staff, March 5, 2018. 

174 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Stafflnterview with Celeste Wallander, August 23, 2017, pp. 49-50. 

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blowback on the United States and its allies, and that process took several weeks to finalize. 175 

However, at least one administration official, Secretary Kerry, did not fully understand the 

rationale behind why the response actions occurred late in December, rather than immediately 

following the election. 176 

(U) When the PC met to discuss which responses to levy against Russia, Ambassador 

Rice stated that the government exhibited typical "rice bowl behavior, where the various 

elements of the interagency [were] happy to see somebody else's rice bowl broken, but they were 

protective of their own." 177 As Ambassador Rice recalled: 

• (U) The Department of State expressed concern about the number of Russians that the 

U.S. would declare persona non grata, expecting a similar expulsion of U.S. diplomats 

from Russia and knowing that the number of U.S. diplomatic staff in Russia was already 

smaller in comparison to the official Russian presence in the United States.178 

• (U) The IC expressed concern about naming Russian intelligence elements in a sanctions 

order, and the Department of Defense was similarly concerned about naming the military 

intelligence entity in a sanctions order. 179 

• (U) The Department of Defense and the NSA expressed concern about cyber actions that 

could be taken against Russia, due to the fact that some of the actions could reveal cyber 

operations tradecraft to the Russians that they wanted to keep undetectable. 180 

A. (U) Expulsion of Russian Diplomats 

(U) On December 29, 2016, the Department of State announced that 35 Russian 

government officials from the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Russian Consulate 

in San Francisco, California were declared persona non grata and given 72 hours to depart the 

United States. According to the Department of State's announcement, this was in response to the 

harassment of U.S. diplomatic personnel. Furthermore, the Department of State declared that the 

Russian government would be denied access to two Russian government-owned compounds, one 

in Maryland and one in New York. 181 

175 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, pp. 29-31; SSCI Transcript of the 

Interview with General Paul Selva, September 15, 2017, p. 43. 

176 (U) SSCI Memorandum for the Record: Interview with Former Secretary of State, John Kerry, November 8, 

2017,p. 5. 177 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, pp. 94-95. 

178 (U) Ibid, p. 95. 

179 (U) Ibid, pp. 95-96. 

180 (U) Ibid, p. 96. 181 (U) The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, FACT SHEET: Actions in Response to Russian Malicious 

Cyber Activity and Harassment, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/29/fact-sheetactions-response-russian-malicious-cyber-activity-and, December 29, 2016. 

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182 

B. (U) Modifying the EO and Sanctions 

(U) On December 29, 2016, President Obama amended Executive Order (EO) 13964 to 

authorize sanctions on individuals who "tamper with, alter, or cause a misappropriation of 

information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes or 

institutions."183 This amendment of EO 13964 enabled the administration to sanction nine 

Russian entities and individuals, including the GRU, the FSB, three companies that supported the 

GRU, Chief and Deputy Chief of the GRU, and two additional GRU officers. 184 

(U) Ms. Monaco told the Committee that the IC and the Departments of the Treasury and 

Justice had sanctions packages that were ready to execute, but "[t]hese were not individuals that 

we could link to the 2016 active measures campaign" and that she asked participants in the 

interagency process to "link any individuals or entities for the cyber activity related to 2016."185 

She reported that Director Brennan committed to examining all available intelligence "to develop 

potential sanctions targets with some link to the cyber activity as related to the active measures 

campaign." 186 

c ................... . 

182 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Denis McDonough, July 18, 2017, p. 48. 

183 (U) The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, FACT SHEET: Actions in Response to Russian Malicious 

Cyb er Activity and Harassment, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/29/fact-sheetactions-response-russian-malicious-cyber-activity-and, December 29, 2016. Executive Order 13964 was issued on 

April 1, 2015, and created a new authority for the U.S. government to block property of individuals engaging in 

significant malicious cyber-enabled activities. 

184 (U) Ibid. 185 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Lisa Monaco, August 10, 2017, p. 76. 

186 (U) Ibid, p. 77. 187 

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188 

189 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, pp. 69-70. 190 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Celeste Wallander, August 23, 2017, pp. 60-63. 

191 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, pp. 70-71. 192 

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D. (U) Cybersecurity Action 

(U) On December 29, 2016, DHS and FBI issued a Joint Analysis Report (JAR) that 

contained declassified technical information on Russian government cyber capabilities, including 

tools, tactics, and infrastructure used by Russian intelligence services. The JAR referred to the 

Russian intelligence activity targeting networks and endpoints, particularly those associated with 

the 2016 U.S. election, as GRIZZLY STEPPE. This was the first JAR to attribute cyber activity 

to a specific country. 194 

(U) On February 10, 2017, DHS's National Cybersecurity and Communications 

Integration Center published an analytical report, titled Enhanced Analysis of GRIZZLY STEPPE 

Activity. The analytical report included additional signatures to be used by cybersecurity 

practitioners to detect a number of capabilities associated with GRIZZLY STEPPE. 195 

E. (U) Tasking the ICA 

(U) On December 6, 2016, President Obama tasked the IC, through Director Clapper, to 

assemble all the information held by the IC relating to Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 

election, along with other historical references, in a single document. According to Ambassador 

Rice: 

The President felt strongly that it was important to leave a record for the public, 

Congress, and for the incoming administration of everything that the [IC] had 

found in its heretofore relatively piecemeal assessments, so that we had basically 

put in one place the sum total of our understanding. He thought that was 

necessary for the public's information and necessary for the incoming 

administration to be able to pick up where we left off, and our responsibility as 

well to Congress. 196 

••• According to Ms. Monaco, the document was not simply a "rollup of everything 

we saw until Election Day,"197 but rather included all information available to the IC as of the 

date of publication,··························· 

193 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 72. 

194 (U) DHS and FBI, GRIZZLY STEPPE -Russian Malicious Cyber Activity, December 29, 2016, https://www.uscert.gov/sites/default/publications/JAR_16-20296A _ GRIZZL Y%20STEPPE-2016-1229 .pdf. 

195 (U) Ibid 196 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Closed Hearing: White House Awareness of and Response to Russian Active 

Measures, July 17, 2018, p. 131. 

197 (U) Ibid, p. 134. 

41 

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••••••••••••••••• 198 Monaco further explained that "[t]he desire 

was also to put in context everything we'd been seeing and have one place .... We've now seen 

a series of these things and an escalation, so let's have one record." 199 

(U) Secretary Kerry told the Committee that he submitted a written memo to President 

Obama advocating for a national, bipartisan commission, similar to the Warren Commission, to 

dig deeply into every aspect of Russia's attempts to interfere with the 2016 elections.200 He 

stated that he was disappointed that the idea was not endorsed and moved forward, and that 

rather President Obama issued the tasking to create the ICA. 201 

(U) Working together, ODNI, CIA, NSA, and FBI completed the task with three 

versions of the same intelligence product, including a highly classified memorandum to the 

President completed on December 30, 2016, a Top Secret ICA published on January 5, 2017, and 

an unclassified ICA made publicly available on January 6, 2017. The Committee's review of the 

IC's response to President Obama's tasking are captured in the Committee's review of the ICA, 

Volume 4: Review of the Intelligence Community Assessment. 

F. (U) Protecting Election Infrastructure 

(U) On January 5, 2017, Secretary Johnson convened a phone call, similar to the August 

15, 2016, call, where he once again raised the issue of designating election infrastructure as 

critical infrastructure for the purposes of providing federal assistance. Based on the feedback he 

received, Secretary Johnson proceeded with his plan to bolster protection of election 

infrastructure. 202 

(U) On the same day the DNI released the unclassified ICA, January 6, 2017, Secretary 

Johnson designated election infrastructure as a subsector of the existing Government Facilities 

critical infrastructure sector, which enables states to leverage the full scope of cybersecurity 

services offered by DHS, provided they request them. The issues surrounding states' ability to 

administer elections, however, were still in the foreground. Secretary Johnson's public statement 

was explicit in asserting that: "[t]his designation does not mean a federal takeover, regulation, 

oversight or intrusion concerning elections in this country."203 

198 (U) Ibid, pp. 134-135. 

199 (U) Ibid, p. 135. 200 (U) The "Warren Commission" was the commission established via Executive Order 11130 by President Lyndon 

B. Johnson on November 29, 1963 to investigate and report on the November 22, 1963 assassination of President 

John F. Kennedy. The Chief Justice of the United States, Earl Warren, served as the chairman of the commission. 

201 (U) SSCI Memorandum for the Record: Interview with Former Secretary of State, John Kerry, November 8, 

2017, pp. 5-6. 202 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Jeh Johnson, June 12, 2017, pp. 44-46. 

203 (U) "Statement by Secretary Jeh Johnson on the Designation ofElection Infrastructure as a Critical 

Infrastructure Subsector," January 6, 2017, https://www.dhs.gov/news/2017/01/06/statement-secretary-johnsondesignation-election-infrastructure-critical. 

42 

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VIII. (U) OPTIONS CONSIDERED BUT NOT EXECUTED 

(U) Administration officials provided insight into response options that were considered, 

but not executed for various reasons. 

(U) According to Ambassador Rice, the response options being considered were heavily 

slanted towards economic measures, meaning the Department of Treasury's assessments "bore a 

lot of weight in our deliberations, as we'd been sanctioning Russia for years."204 Ambassador 

Rice noted that while Treasury's position had often been "hawkish" on Russia, it assessed that 

previous sanctions applied against Russia had exhausted economic options that would impact 

Russia in a meaningful way but would not harm the United States or its allies. Treasury assessed 

that the remaining economic options would incur significant blowback to either the United States 

or its allies, notably the Europeans. 205 

(U) Some administration officials indicated that uncertainty about the future Russia 

policy of the incoming administration, combined with uncertainty about the level of commitment 

from European allies, factored into considerations regarding more aggressive punitive sanctions. 

Christina Segal-Knowles, who served as the Senior Director for Global Economics and Finance, 

stated that sanctions "relied on psychology to be effective" and recalled concerns about 

credibility and continuity. Ms. Segal-Knowles said, "I think the possibility ofreversal-I'm not 

sure that it was necessarily 'we know what the [incoming] administration will do,' but it 

certainly weighed on the constraints that we were facing, in that we couldn't promise what the 

next administration's policy would be."206 Ambassador Rice told the Committee, "[w]e were 

trying to punish the Russians without losing the Europeans, without causing some unforeseen 

reaction by the new administration."207 

204 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 74. 

205 (U) Ibid, pp. 74-75. 206 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Christina Segal-Knowles, May 10, 2018, pp. 23-24. 

207 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Susan Rice, July 12, 2017, p. 75. 208 (U) Ibid, pp. 75-76. 209 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Samantha Power, July 28, 2017, pp. 34-35. 

210 (U) Ibid 

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--

IX. (U) RECOMMENDATIONS 

1. (U) Strengthen Partnerships 

(U) The executive branch should bolster pat1nerships with Russia's "near abroad." 

Russia uses countries on its periphe1y as a laborato1y for refming its active measures campaigns. 

The United States should establish and expand partnerships with those countries to identify new 

Russian active measures and assist these pa11ners' ability to defend against them. Such 

partnerships will help to prepare defenses for the eventual expansion of inte1ference techniques 

targeting the West. 

2. (U) Support Cyber Norms 

(U) The United States should lead the way on creating international cyber norms. Russia 

and China are actively promoting their view of cyber n01ms to international fonm1s, redefining 

the cyber battlefield and writing the mies in their favor. Much as with other agreements, U.S. 

leadership is needed to balance any fornialized international agreement on acceptable uses of 

cyber capabilities. 

3. (U) Prepare for the Next Attack 

(U) The executive branch should be prepared to face an attack on U.S. elections in a 

highly politicized environment either from the Russia or from elsewhere. This preparation 

should include developing a range of standing response options that can be rapidly executed, as 

appropriate. if a clandestine foreign influence operation is directed at the United States. 

(U) The DNL as the country's senior intelligence representative, should provide a 

regular, apolitical assessment of foreign intelligence threats to U.S. elections, including 

clandestine foreign influence campaigns. prior to regularly scheduled federal elections, as first 

proposed in Section 608 of the J11telhge11ce A11tlr01tatio11 Act for Fiscal Year 2018, S. 1761 

(1151h Cong .. l51 Sess.) (introduced. Aug. 18, 2017). 

(U) Executive and legislative branch officials, regardless of pa11y affiliation. should 

jointly and publicly reinforce the DNl's findings, pai1icularly if a foreign influence eff011 is 

directed at specific candidates seeking office. 

211 (U) SSCI Transcript of the Interview with Celeste Wallander. August 23. 2017. pp. 25-26. 

212 (l') Ibid. 

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(U) The President of the United States should take steps to separate himself or herself 

from political considerations when handling issues related to foreign influence operations. These 

steps should include explicitly putting aside politics when addressing the American people on 

election threats and marshalling all the resources of the U.S. Government to effectively confront 

the threat. 

(U) Sitting officials and candidates should use the absolute greatest amount of restraint 

and caution if they are considering publicly calling the validity of an upcoming election into 

question. Such a grave allegation can have significant national security and electoral 

consequences, including limiting the response options of the appropriate authorities, and 

exacerbating the already damaging messaging efforts of foreign intelligence services. 

4. (U) Integrate Responses to Cyber Incidents 

(U) Cyber events, especially those undertaken by a nation state that go beyond 

traditional intelligence collection, must be assessed within the geopolitical context to identify 

and understand both the potential intent and impact of an attack. Current and future 

administrations should align and synchronize cyber as an integral part of foreign policy activity, 

rather than treating cyber as an isolated domain. 

5. (U) Prioritize Collection on Information Warfare 

(U) The IC should prioritize resources to better collect on and analyze information 

warfare and the influence capabilities of hostile nations. The IC should also contextualize cyber 

events with this information to better understand adversary capability and intent. 

6. (U) Increasing Information Sharing on Foreign Influence Efforts 

(U) Once credible information is obtained about a foreign influence or active measures 

operation, that information at the appropriate classification level should be shared as broadly as 

appropriate within government, including Congress, while still protecting sources and methods. 

This information should also be shared with relevant state and local authorities, and relevant 

private sector partners, as appropriate. For operations specifically targeting election 

infrastructure and systems, federal engagement with state and local election officials, as well as 

relevant private sector partners, must be substantive and timely. 

(U) In the event that such a campaign is detected, the public should be informed as soon 

as possible, with a clear and succinct statement of the threat, even if the information is 

incomplete. Delaying the release of information allows inaccurate narratives to spread, which 

makes the task of informing the public significantly harder. Mechanisms for issuing public 

warnings related to threats to elections should be put in place to allow for any warning to be 

made in a timely and non-partisan manner. 

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7. (U) Clarify Roles, Responsibilities, and Authorities 

(U) The lack of clear authorities and responsibilities within the IC for detecting and 

mitigating Russian influence operations conducted via social media inhibited the ability to 

provide early warning to policymakers, or quickly formulate a complete set of response options. 

The Committee addresses its findings and recommendations regarding election security and 

social media in separate volumes of this report. 

(U) List of Classification Sources: 

• 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

46 

COMMITTEE SENSITIVE - RUSSIA INVESTIGATION ONLY 
UNCLASSIFIED 

ADDITIONAL VIEWS OF SENATORS RISCH, RUBIO, 

COTTON, CORNYN, and SASSE 

(U) Volume 3 of the Select Committee on Intelligence's "Report on Russian Active 

Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election," exposes in great detail the 

Obama administration's inept response to Russia's persistent and complex campaign to influence 

and interfere in the most recent U.S. presidential election. In its report, the Committee found that 

administration officials felt constrained in its response to Russian malign activity due to a 

number of factors including the heavily politicized environment that existed in 2016, and the fear 

that public warnings about such activity could undermine confidence in the election, the very 

thing Russia was trying to accomplish. Such factors do not excuse the administration's failures 

to heed clear intelligence warnings, establish an effective deterrent, or take effective action to 

counter Russia's activities before, and after November 8, 2016. 

(U) Available Intelligence 

(U) As detailed in the Committee's report, there was intelligence available as far back as 

2015 that indicated significant Russian malign activity targeted at our civil society. For example, 

the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attempted to warn the Democratic National Committee 

(DNC) on severnl occasions throughout 2015 and 2016 that malign actors had or sought to 

penetrate its networks. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper "publicly 

alluded to the threat of cyberattacks against presidential campaigns during a May, 2016, event." 

Despite this intelligence reporting, which was apparently known at the highest levels of the 

intelligence community for quite some time, former administration officials interviewed by the 

Committee claimed they were unaware of the Russian cyber penetration of the DNC until it was 

reported in the Washington Post on June 14, 2016. Even after the information was published, the 

administration believed this to be "within the bounds of traditional espionage," not indicators of 

the active measures campaign it actually was. It was not until additional information was 

obtained by senior administration officials in late July 2016 that the administration received what 

it called its "wake up call" on Russian operations. 

(U) Warnings Did Not Work 

(U) Once senior administration officials became aware of the threat, warnings were 

delivered to the highest levels of the Russian government-its president, foreign minister, 

intelligence chiet: and ambassador to the U.S. In chronological order, Former Secretary of State 

John Kerry told the Committee that the first such confrontation was on July 26, 2016, with a 

warning that Russian interference in the U.S. elections was serious, and that such behavior posed 

risks to the bilateral relationship. Former CIA Director John Brennan confirmed that on August 

4, 2016, a warning was provided that if Russia pursued this course, it would destroy any nearterm prospect for improvement in relations between Washington and Moscow. President Obama, 

on recommendation from Ambassador Susan Rice and others, delivered a carefully crafted 

message to Putin in early September 2016, on the sidelines of the 020 Summit in Huangzhou, 

China. In a meeting on October 7, 2016, between Ambassador Rice and the Russian Ambassador 

to the U.S., a verbal message was delivered to the Russian Ambassador, along with a 

47 

UNCLASSIFIED 
UNCLASSIFIED 

written one from President Obama to Putin, which outlined the kinds of consequences that 

Putin could anticipate would be powerfully impactful to Russia's economy and far exceed 

anything he had seen to date. 

(U) The Committee's report notes that senior administration officials "assessed that their 

warnings to Russia before the election had the desired effect, and that Russia undertook little to 

no additional action once the warnings were delivered." Rice testified, "[W]e did not see any 

indications in the run-up to and including the election that they had hacked more stuff [or] 

falsified information." Information released by WikiLeaks after warnings from the 

administration, in Rice's view, was information that had already been stolen and was in 

possession of the Russians, therefore, "the horse had left the barn." 

(U) But in reviewing intelligence reporting available during that time as part of this 

investigation, the Committee found that "at least some aspects of Russian activity continued 

through the fall of 2016 and after the election; notably, Russia's use of social media and its 

attempts to penetrate vulnerable state and local election infrastructure." Assertions made by 

former administration officials that they believed their warnings had been heeded ring especially 

hollow because it was after these warnings were issued that WikiLeaks posted the first tranche of 

thousands of emails from the Clinton campaign. Another tranche of emails stolen from the DNC 

were released on November 6, 2016. From August through October 2016, Russian trolls and 

Russians posing as Americans organized campaign rallies in Florida and Pennsylvania; 

published fake advertisements designed to sow dissent amongst Americans; and used Twitter 

accounts to post accusations of voter fraud under false identities. What appeared to be genuine 

American political activity was in fact an active measures campaign bought and paid for by the 

Russians. It remains unclear whether reporting attributing such activity to Russia made its way 

up to senior administration officials through the regular channels, but it is baffling that the 

administration did not aggressively seek any information available from the intelligence 

community to verify that its warnings to Moscow had their intended effect. 

(U) Post-Election Response 

(U) In interviews with the Committee, former Obama administration officials expressed 

that after the election they no longer felt constrained in responding to Russia the way they had 

before November 8. And yet, the United States did not respond for weeks and weeks following 

Election Day. In addressing this delay to the Committee, Rice attributed it to the various 

disagreements that took place in the interagency over the suite of proposed options. We remain 

baffled as to why these options - expelling diplomats, levying sanctions, and publicly revealing 

Russian cyber activities targeted at our election were not prepared months beforehand. 

following the administration's discovery of Russian activity in late July 2016, so that they could 

be operationalized as soon as necessary. Waiting until after the election to debate the merits and 

second-order impacts of expelling diplomats or sanctioning individuals involved in Russia's 

malign activity enabled continued Russian meddling. Hollow threats and slow, hapless 

responses from the administration translated to perceived weakness on the part of the U.S., and 

Putin exploited that weakness with impunity. It appears to us that either the Obama 

administration was woefully unprepared to address a known and ongoing national security threat, 

or even worse, that the administration did not take the threat seriously. 

48 

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(U) Missed Opportunity 

(U) Intelligence pointing towards malign Russian activity aimed at our civil society 

existed That there was no recognition of this activity by 

senior Obama administration officials until late July 2016 is appalling. The administration 

missed important opportunities to deter Russian operations before they escalated, and that is 

inexcusable. 

(U) When the administration finally recognized Russia' a malign activity three months 

before the election, its response, or lack thereof, failed to stop Russia's efforts. Even worse, 

senior Obama administration officials seemed to believe their warnings had in fact deterred 

Russia without taking any steps to prove that was the case. Without consequences, Putin was 

free to continue to wreak havoc on our democratic process, and further imperil our democracy. 

These warnings were yet another red line that the Obama administration drew but refused to 

enforce, emboldening Moscow to continue its malign activities aimed at our democratic process 

and sow discord in our society. 

(U) While we understand some of the constraints by which the administration felt bound 

in the lead-up to the election, these constraints did not inhibit or preclude a strong response from 

Washington. When it comes to protecting American democracy against our most capable mid 

malicious adversaries, there should be nothing but a strong response. We now know what 

happens when an administration fail to take such actions. 

49 

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MINORITY VIEWS OF SENATOR WY DEN 

(U) The Committee's report on the U.S. Government's response to Russian interference 

lacks critical information, leaving the American people in the dark about key events leading up 

to the 2016 election. In 2016, the Obama Administration withheld information from the 

congressional intelligence committees, preventing members from conducting oversight, 

developing policy responses, or advocating for transparency with the public. In addition, the socalled "Gang of Eight" briefings did not involve formal recordkeeping. As a result, the 

Committee's report denies the American public an opportunity for historical accountability - for 

the refusal of some members to inform the public about Russian interference and for public 

statements denying the existence of intelligence indicating that Russia was seeking to help 

Donald Trump. 

(U) The report includes several recommendations with which I strongly agree, 

particularly with regard to the need for transparency. As the Committee urges, information on 

foreign influence campaigns should be shared as widely as possible, including with state and 

local officials, the private sector, and Congress. The public should be informed of foreign 

influence campaigns as soon as possible, even if the information is incomplete. And, members 

of Congress from both parties should ''jointly and publicly reinforce the DNI 's findings, 

particularly if a foreign influence effort is directed at specific candidates seeking office." 

(U) There are multiple reasons why these principles were not adhered to in 2016, but 

many of them begin with the Obama Administration's decision to severely limit its briefings to 

Congress on Russian interference. Intelligence of this magnitude should have been briefed to the 

full congressional intelligence committees and to the committees' full complement of staff with 

its range of responsibilities and expertise. Complex policy and legal issues could have been 

discussed and debated. Questions could have been asked of the administration, not just during 

an initial briefing but in written follow-up questions and subsequent staff and member briefings. 

Members could have developed positions, individually, with other members, or perhaps even as 

a Committee. Members could also have weighed in on what information should be downgraded 

or declassified, for release to the full Congress, state and local officials, and the public. 

(U) But none of that happened. Instead, at a moment when the country's democracy was 

under direct attack and the administration was hoping for support from Congress, it refused to 

engage the congressional intelligence committees.1 How might things have turned out 

differently? Historically, the full committees have reacted to information differently than have 

the "Gang of Eight." For example, only when the committees learned of the CIA's torture 

program and the NSA 's warrantless wiretapping program was there meaningful oversight and 

legislative responses. And while the response of the full committees to a hypothetical preelection briefing on Russian interference may be unknown, the fact remains that, shortly after the 

election, when the full Senate Intelligence Committee was briefed for the first time, a number of 

members called for declassification of information. Much of that information would later be 

made public through the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment. 

I 

The National Security Act of 1947, as amended, which establishes statutory reporting requirements, recognizes the 

"Gang of Eight" briefings only with regard to covert action and not to collection or analysis. 

50 

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UNCLASSIFIED 

(U) Engaging the full congressional intelligence committees prior to the election would 

also have left a documentary record. Briefings and hearings would have been transcribed. 

Written questions would have been submitted and responded to. Follow up staff briefings would 

have been documented. And letters from members would have been drafted and sent. The result 

would have been historical accountability, for an administration legally obligated to keep the 

congressional intelligence committees fully and currently informed, and for members of 

Congress responsible to their constituents and their oaths of office. The public would know how 

their representatives responded to the attack. Historians would have a basis for future judgments. 

This report would have been very different. 

(U) But among the insidious aspects of "Gang of Eight" briefings is the lack of a paper 

trail, which is why this report leaves so many questions largely unanswered. What, precisely, 

was shared with members of the "Gang of Eight" between August 11 and September 6, 2016? 

What was shared at the September 8, 2016, briefing with the "Gang of Eight" and the leaders of 

the homeland security committees? What did the administration ask of these members? How 

did members respond? Did members of Congress question classification decisions that impeded 

sharing with the full intelligence committees, the full Congress, state and local officials, and the 

public? And were members' subsequent public statements consistent with what they were 

briefed on? 

(U) The report provides little information on what then-CIA Director John Brennan 

briefed the members of the "Gang of Eight." In 2017, Director Brennan testified publicly about 

the briefings: 

The substance of those briefings was entirely consistent with the main judgments 

contained in the Januaty [2017] classified and unclassified assessments 

namely, that Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic 

process, denigrate Secretary Clinton and harm her electability and potential 

presidency, and help President Trump's election chances. 2 

(U) Absent a transcript, however, it is difficult to confirm what, exactly was conveyed to 

the members of the "Gang of Eight," or even whether the same information was provided at each 

of the separate individual briefings. The content of these briefings is critically important, 

however, as a measure both of the administration's adherence to statutory notification 

requirements and of members' responses to learning of this ongoing attack. 

(U) The report provides a little more information about the September 8, 2016, briefing 

for the "Gang of Eight" and the leadership of the homeland security committees, but that 

infonnation derives from interviews conducted almost a year after the fact. This briefing, which, 

despite the inclusion of additional members and the exclusion of key details, was still not 

provided to the full congressional intelligence committees, was not transcribed. The absence of a 

transcript is particularly troublesome because of the administration's request in that briefing for a 

public, bipartisan statement about Russian interference and the response to that request. The 

report conveys only that "some members" resisted and cites only the views of Senate Majority 

2 Testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, May 23, 2017 

51 

UNCLASSIFIED 
UNCLASSIFIED 

Leader McConnell. Otherwise, the public record is limited to subsequent statements and letters 

from the attendees of the briefing. 

(U) The missing details of these interactions are critically important because of what 

happened next. As the report describes, the Obama Administration believed that any public 

statements about Russian interference it might make would be seen as partisan, a concern that 

would be mitigated if members of Congress were to publicly support the available intelligence. I 

believe that warning the public about a foreign influence campaign should not depend on the 

support of both parties, particularly when one of the parties stands to gain politically from that 

campaign. But that is how the Obama Administration folt. As Avril Haines, the Deputy 

Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs noted, as a result of the failure to elicit a 

bipartisan letter related to Russian interference, the administration "tempered our response 

options." 

(U) The immediate result of the Republican refusal to publicly acknowledge Russian 

interference was the watered down letter to the president of the National Association of State 

Election Directors on September 28, 2016. That letter cited only "malefactors," a word that in 

no way conveyed the threat posed by a sophisticated nation state adversary like Russia. The 

letter, which also opposed the designation of election systems as critical infrastructure, failed to 

prompt a response proportional to the seriousness of the threat. 

(U) The lack of a bipartisan public acknowledgment of the ongoing attack by Russia had 

other implications. If the Administration had informed the public of Russian hacking and 

dumping earlier than October 7, and had there been bipartisan condemnation of these operations, 

the public and the press may have reacted differently to the WikiLeaks releases. At the least, 

stories about Democratic emails might have mentioned that their release was part of a Russian 

influence campaign and that Donald Trump's repeated references to the releases, his stated 

adoration ofWikiLeaks, and his solicitation of Russian assistance were taking place in the 

context of an ongoing influence campaign to assist him. Bipartisan public warnings of Russian 

interference might have alerted the public and the private sector to Russian social media 

influence operations and helped inoculate the public against those operation~ Finally, clear, 

fact-based bipartisan statements about Russia's actions would have changed the public's 

understanding of how the very issue of Russian influence was being debated by the candidates 

(''No puppet. You're the puppet.") 

(U) An acknowledgment of Russian influence operations, particularly operations 

intended to help Donald Trump, would have reflected poorly on the candidate and his campaign. 

But that should not have been a reason for the administration and members of Congress to 

withhold from the public warning of an ongoing attack by a foreign adversary. Nor should a 

political environment in which one candidate was questioning the legitimacy of the election with 

falsehoods ("large scale voter fraud") have been a reason to keep the public in the dark about real 

threats to America's democracy. 

(U) The Committee's report describes a number of understandable challenges facing the 

Obama administration, including those related to understanding the relevant intelligence. But the 

administration's interactions with Congress, the public response -or lack thereof from 

52 

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UNCLASSIFIED 

Republican leadership, and the paucity of public information represent a serious political 

breakdown. There are lessons to be learned from this history, many of which are reflected in the 

report's recommendations. But one must be explicit: when the country is under threat, the 

govenunent has a particular responsibility to provide all relevant intelligence to the full 

congressional intelligence committees. Meaningful engagement between the two branches of 

govenunent offers the best opportunity for bipartisan resistance to an attack from a foreign 

adversary and, absent that, accountability for any failures to defend the country. 

(U) Finally, the concerns that I raised in my minority views in Volume I related to the 

lack of access by most Committee staff to relevant investigative materials have not been 

resolved. In this report, the Committee recommends that information about foreign influence 

campaigns be shared as broadly as possible. It is bizarre that the Committee would not heed its 

own recommendation and grant access to this information to its own staff, thereby remedying 

some of the very concerns I have identified in these views. 

53 

UNCLASSIFIED 
ADDITIONAL VIEWS OF SENATOR HEINRICH 

(V) I Yoted to adopt Volume Ill of the Committee's Report on Russian Interforence in 

the 2016 U.S. Election, which focuses on the U.S. government response to Russian activities. I 

also voted to publicly release the unclassified version of this volume. I commend the 

C ommittce' s professional staff for their work and especially for their efforts to make sense of the 

tumultuous events that unfolded in the months before and after the 2016 U.S. election. 

(lJ) As the report notes, the Committee knows far more about the scope of Russian 

activity now - 'vith the benefit of hindsight and additional infonnation - than the Obama 

administration knew in 2016. This volume is an attempt lo bring together information drawn 

from interviews with key administration officials and classified and unclassified documents to 

tell the story of how Russia's interference was understood and addressed in real-time. 

(U) While this volwne might be one of the more robust publicly available accounts of 

the administration· s actions in response to Russian interference, it should not be mistaken for a 

thorough historical record, as Sen. Wyden's minority views point out. The decision to limit 

engagement with Congress through the "Gang of Eight" mechanism meant that no formal 

records were kept of the various interactions between administration principals and 

congressional leaders. As a consequence. we cannot know precisely what was shared in these 

meetings or how members of Congress reacted. 

(U) Limiting information only lo a handful of members of Congress also constrained the 

administration's ability to build the bipartisan support necessary to credibly push back against 

Russian interference. While the adminiscration was understandably worried that actions taken 

prior to the election might be perceived as partisan and undermine confidence in the election 

process, a show of broad bipartisan support for the validity of the intelligence could have 

alleviaied some of those concerns. 

(U) Finally, the volume includes recommendations to defend against Russian or other 

attempls to interfere in elections in 2020 and beyond. I agree with all of them. In particular, as 

discussed above, I agree that it is critical to share as broadly and as quickly as possible credible 

information about a foreign influence or active measures operation. 

(U) I also agree wholeheartedly that "executive and legislative branch officials, 

regardless of party affiliation, should jointly and publicly reinforce the DNr s findings" 

regarding foreign intelligence threat'i to elections. As administration officials have warned 

publicly, these threats are evolving and increasing in sophistication - at the same tin1e as political 

polm·i7ation in this country deepens. One way to reinforce the Intelligence Community's findings 

of foreign election interference is for Congress to work together to pass bipartisan election 

security legislation and other legislative measures that would signal a joint commitment to 

protecting our democratic institutions. Americans of all political affiliations deserve elected 

representatives who understand and act meaningfully on the threat of foreign election 

interference to our democracy. 

54