Congress to Trump, basically: Russia is not fake news

The Fix Analysis

Congress to Trump, basically: Russia is not fake news

By Amber Phillips October 5 at 8:53 AM

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Here are four things a Republican senator and a Democratic senator say they know about Russia after eight months of investigating, hundreds of hours of interviews with more than 100 people and nearly 100,000 pages of documents reviewed.

1. “There is consensus among members and staff that we trust the conclusions” of the intelligence community's assessment. — Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Translation: In January, the U.S. intelligence community said Russia carried out a comprehensive cyber campaign to sabotage the presidential election and help Trump win. It was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. We looked into it and there's no reason to doubt that conclusion, Burr is saying, even though Trump has questioned it several times.

2. “The Russian intelligence service is determined, clever, and I recommend that every campaign and every election official take this very seriously.” — Burr

Translation: Burr was urging upcoming campaigns and state election officials to be on high alert that Russia will try to mess with future elections. But his advice could also apply to Trump, who has been accused of brushing off the notion of Russia meddling.

Link to tweet

3. “We have more work to do as it relates to Russia collusion, but we're developing a clearer picture of what happened.” — Burr

Translation: At the very least, accusations that the Trump campaign worked with Russia are not a hoax. It's worth significant time and resources for the Senate Intelligence Committee to continue investigating. Same goes for an independent investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

4. “You can't walk away from this and believe that Russia is not active in trying to create chaos in our election process.” — Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.)

Translation: The senators haven't concluded much beyond ruling that Russia meddled in the election and could be trying to do it again. They're still investigating Trump campaign officials' meetings with Russians, former FBI director James B. Comey's allegations that Trump tried to get him to back off Russia and the Republican campaign platform's switch to a Russia-friendly position.

But the senators were ready to definitively say that Russia did three things in the U.S. election.

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