Feb 6, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Senate Intel details Obama administration's response to 2016 Russian interference

Sens. Mark Warner and Richard Burr. Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday released the third volume of its report on foreign interference in the 2016 election, which covered the U.S. government's response to Russia's hacking of Democratic emails and social media manipulation efforts.

The big picture: The committee found that the government was "not well-postured" to counter Russian interference with policy measures and that the Obama administration was constrained by its reluctance to publicize election meddling for fear of appearing political.

"The Committee found that decisions to limit and delay the information flow regarding the 2016 Russian active measures campaign, while understandable, inadvertently constrained the administration's ability to respond," the committee writes in its findings.

Driving the news: The third volume of the report was released one day after President Trump was acquitted by the Senate for attempting to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election.

In the "recommendations" section of its report, the committee states that the president "should take steps to separate himself or herself from political considerations when handling issues related to foreign influence operations."
"These steps should include explicitly putting aside politics when addressing the American people on election threats and marshalling all the resources of the U.S. government to effectively confront the threat," the report continues.

Read the full report.

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