Fake news

Connecticut's congressional delegation wants answers about Russia

“Russia’s efforts to disrupt our elections through cyber hacking and dissemination of false media reports present a grave danger to our democracy,’’ said Rep. Elizabeth Esty. “The sanctity of our elections — and the public’s confidence in their outcome — is fundamental to our nation’s very survival.’’

“I think the Russians’ motives are still up for discussion,’’ said Rep. Jim Himes, a member of the House intelligence committee. “But what’s not up for discussion is Russian meddling in our election.’’

And Sen. Richard Blumenthal said: “Whatever their intention, the Russians didn’t simply blunder into this interference. They did it purposefully, and whether it was to swing the election to Trump or disrupt the democratic process requires clarification.’’

Allegations of Russian efforts to assist Trump grow out of a briefing that the CIA and FBI jointly gave to Senate leaders just after the election. The U.S. intelligence community for months had stated its belief that Russians were intent on causing electoral havoc, but had not pinpointed a specific objective until last month.

Even so, the FBI was said not to share the CIA’s conclusion — a divergence that might be a reflection of the FBI’s law-enforcement role building cases that stand up in court, versus the CIA role of giving policymakers the best snapshot of what they know right away.

Also on Monday, Clinton campaign manager John Posdesta, whose campaign-related emails were among those hacked and disclosed by WikiLeaks, said he supported a request by 10 presidential electors including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to receive an intelligence briefing ahead of the Dec. 19  Electoral College certification of the election results.

“We now know the CIA has determined Russia’s interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump,’’ Podesta said. “This should distress every American.’’

And Chris Murphy has called for sanctions against Russia. 

Senator Harry Reid, the man who admitted that he lied about Mitt Romney not paying income taxes and said "I'd do it again", joined his equally duplicitous colleagues from Connecticut and did them one better: "It's as big a deal as Watergate or 9/11". 

Sheesh. Where was our delegation, and its outrage, in 2014, when the White House's computer email was hacked by the Russians? The answer, from Powerline's  John Hinderaker, can be found here.

Remember when the Russians hacked the White House computers?

You probably don’t. We broke the story on Power Line in October 2014, writing about it here, here, here, here, here and here. The White House’s computers were down for weeks because of the intrusion by a “foreign power,” which the administration finally identified as Russia. It wasn’t just the White House, either; it was the entire Executive Office of the President, which comprises a good chunk of the executive branch. Nor was that all: the State Department’s computer system was hacked, too.

While we pounded away at the story, the White House refused to respond to our inquiries. The Washington press corps, which must have known that the White House’s computers were out of action, maintained a discreet silence, declining to write about the Russian hack, even though many D.C. reporters no doubt followed the story on Power Line. Why the coy silence? Because it was October 2014, weeks before the midterm elections, and the story reflected poorly on the Obama administration, which didn’t even discover the intrusion itself. It turned out that American officials were alerted to the Russian hack of the White House and State Department by an unidentified ally (I’m guessing Israel).

Only when the election was safely over did news outlets like CNN report the story (“How the U.S. thinks Russians hacked the White House”). Throughout, the Obama administration minimized the story, claiming that no harm was done and only unclassified material was accessed–an excuse that, as CNN wrote post-election, “belies the seriousness of the intrusion.”

Now, the same news outlets that refused to cover the Russian government’s hacking into White House and State Department computers and email systems try to tell us that an intrusion into Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s and John Podesta’s email accounts by someone–allegedly the same Russian government–is a story of world-historical importance. What a load of bulls–t.