Senate Intel Report Confirms Russia Helped Trump

“The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday [April 21] reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

“Tuesday's bipartisan report, from a panel chaired by North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, undercuts Trump's years of efforts to portray allegations of Kremlin assistance to his campaign as a ‘hoax,’ driven by Democrats and a “deep state” embedded within the government bureaucracy.

“The intelligence community’s initial January 2017 assessment of Moscow’s influence campaign included ‘specific intelligence reporting to support the assessment that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Russian government demonstrated a preference for candidate Trump,’ the committee’s report says. The panel also found ‘specific intelligence’ to support the conclusion that Putin ‘approved and directed aspects’ of the Kremlin’s interference efforts.

“Senators and committee aides examined everything from the sources and methods used for the intelligence-gathering, to the Kremlin’s actions itself. The 158-page report is heavily redacted, with dozens of pages blacked out entirely. But its final conclusions were unambiguous. ‘The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusions,’ Burr said in a statement, adding that the intelligence community’s conclusions reflect ‘strong trade craft’ and ‘sound analytical reasoning.’

“…The panel's findings are in line with a previously issued bipartisan statement in which Senate Intelligence leaders endorsed the January 2017 assessment by the clandestine community. The newest conclusions come in the fourth of five reports the committee is releasing on Moscow’s interference in the 2016 campaign. The committee last month approved the report unanimously….

“The report devotes ‘additional attention’ to the disagreements among some intelligence agencies about the Russian government’s intentions in meddling in the 2016 campaign. The report states that ‘the analytic disagreement was reasonable, transparent, and openly debated among the agencies and analysts.’ It also notes that the committee interviewed officials involved in drafting the January 2017 assessment, which came out days before Trump's inauguration, and states that they were not subject to political pressure.

“The January 2017 assessment found that ‘Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.’

“…Trump has openly criticized the intelligence community’s work, both as a presidential candidate and as commander in chief. His fury has only intensified since its inspector general alerted Congress last year of a whistle blower complaint regarding the [Trump’s] posture toward Ukraine, a process that resulted in his impeachment. [Trump] is still rejecting intelligence officials' more recent warnings — delivered to lawmakers last month — that Russia is interfering in this year's election and that Moscow has a preference for Trump…” (Senate Intel report confirms Russia aimed to help Trump in 2016).