The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released a report of findings it announced back in May that supported the Intelligence Community Assessment released by the Obama administration in January 2017 that Russia meddled in the 2016 elections to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump.
“There is no doubt that Russia undertook an unprecedented effort to interfere with our 2016 elections,” Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) said in a joint statement with Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) on May 16, 2018 — more than a month ago.
“After a thorough review, our staff concluded that the ICA conclusions were accurate and on point. The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton,” Warner said in that statement.
However, critics of President Trump desperate for negative Russia collusion-related news seized on the report as if its findings were new. Mainstream news outlets sent out “Breaking” news alerts on the report, and the usual suspects took to Twitter to highlight the Senate’s report released Tuesday.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff (D-CA), highlighted Politico’s “BREAKING” news tweet with his own tweet, claiming, “the evidence has only grown stronger.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee found what is obvious to all impartial observers: Russia meddled in the 2016 election to hurt Clinton and help Trump.
It was clear in January 2017, and the evidence has only grown stronger since. Only the President and his allies deny it. https://t.co/vkvd326k33
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 4, 2018
The fact that Russia meddled in the election is not disputed. However, there is no evidence to date that Russia’s ham-fisted and sparsely-resourced social media campaign had any effect on the outcome of the election.
There is also no evidence to date that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. However, Trump critics have tried to blame Trump’s win on Russia.
The House Intelligence Committee also found that Russia meddled in the election in their final report earlier this year. However, it found that it was not clear that Russia aimed to help Clinton and hurt Trump.
The House committee’s report disputed how the intelligence community reached its assessment.
“While most of the analysis contained in the [intelligence community assessment] held up to scrutiny, the Committee investigation found that ICA judgments on Putin’s strategic objectives failed to meet most of the analytic standards set forth in the primary guiding document for IC analysis, Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 203, Analytic Standards,” the House’s report said.
Nonetheless, mainstream news outlets interpreted the Senate committee’s report as repudiating House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) personally.
The Daily Beast’s report on the old Senate findings had the gleeful headline, “Bipartisan Senate Panel Gives Middle Finger to Devin Nunes.”
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