The head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security said that Russia successfully penetrated the voter rolls of several states during the 2016 election.
Jeanette Manfra said in an interview with NBC News:
“We saw a targeting of 21 states and an exceptionally small number of them were actually successfully penetrated.”
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NBC News reached out to the 21 states that were targeted. Five states, including Texas and California, said they were never attacked.
Of course, the Russians wouldn’t attack Texas. They were trying to help Trump, not hurt him. If California would have suddenly gone red on election night, it would have been too obvious and set off red flags.
The Russians were probing the voter rolls for a variety of reasons. They could have been looking for names of voters to hand to the Trump campaign to target. Remember, the Russians already had Clinton/DNC list of targeted voters, or they could have been looking to manipulate the voter rolls by disqualifying Democratic voters from voting.
Being that Trump won the election by less than 90,000 votes in three states, it wouldn’t take much Russian meddling in a few states to change the outcome of the presidential election. Until the truth is known about the Trump/Russia relationship, and Russia’s role in the 2016 election, Trump will occupy the White House under a cloud of illegitimacy.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
