The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee released a report confirming the findings of the intelligence community that Russia helped Trump win in 2016.
The key findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee report:
The Committee found the ICA presents a coherent and well-constructed intelligence basis for the case of unprecedented Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. On the analytic lines of the ICA, the Committee concludes that all II analytic lines are supported with all-source intelligence, although with varying substantiation. The Committee did not discover any significant analytic tradecraft issues in the preparation or final presentation of the ICA.
The ICA reflects proper analytic tradecraft despite being tasked and completed within a compressed timeframe. The compact timeframe was a contributing factor for not conducting formal analysis of competing hypotheses.
The Committee also shot down Trump’s claims about the intelligence assessment being politically motivated to get the president, “In all the interviews of those who drafted and prepared the ICA, the Committee heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions. All analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content, and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper for the analytic process.”
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The Trump talking point about the Steele Dossier being the basis of the investigation was destroyed, “The Committee found that the information provided by Christopher Steele to FBI was not used in the body of the ICA or to support any of its analytic judgments. However, a summary of this material was included in Annex A as a compromise to FBI’s insistence that the information was responsive to the presidential tasking.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee is led by Senate Republicans, and they agreed with the intelligence assessment that Russia helped Donald Trump win the presidency.
Trump is already facing defeat due to his coronavirus response incompetence, but the Senate Intel report is a damning reminder that Russia has never gone away. The black cloud of the Russians installing Trump as president hangs over this administration’s head and will follow it until it’s final day.
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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
