President and did not drop the investigation into Michael Flynn.
All of that has led to the appointment of a special counsel, Bob Mueller, who has now taken over the executive branch portion of the investigation—an investigation which will likely go on for some time. It is essential for the good of the country that we get to the truth of what happened and get a full accounting and report.
As that investigation proceeds, there is one thing that should not wait, which is really what I want to talk about today. It is the need to take action against Russia for interfering in our democratic process and in our elections. There is no excuse for inaction on that front.
We know that starting in 2015, Russia launched an unprecedented and multifaceted campaign to undermine our elections—a view shared by our entire intelligence community. The Kremlin, according to former Director of National Intelligence Clapper, wanted to ‘‘undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process.’’ This was and remains the unanimous verdict of the intelligence community.
We know that as part of this effort, Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. We know that Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU, then released those emails to the public in increments which were timed to cause turmoil in the American electorate.
Russia paid more than 1,000 people—human trolls—to work out of a facility in Saint Petersburg, Russia. These trolls spent their waking hours creating anti-Clinton fake news reports and disseminating these stories in key states and districts. Russia also used thousands of botnets to echo and amplify these fake news stories.
Russia also targeted the election boards of nearly half the states in our country, successfully infiltrating at least four voter registration databases and gaining access to hundreds of thousands of voter records. They even attempted to infiltrate the Maryland State Board of Elections but were not successful.
My point here today is not to debate the extent to which those Russian actions impacted or did not impact our elections; my point is that there is unanimous agreement that they interfered in our democratic process and that tomorrow they could interfere in it for other purposes and other means. We know they have targeted Senators and Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and we can expect, especially if we do not take action, that these attacks will only grow in pace and sophistication as we head into future elections.
We also know that Russia’s attacks on democratic forms of government reach well beyond our own borders. The intelligence community has warned us that Moscow will apply the lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign aimed at the U.S. Presidential election to future influence efforts worldwide, including against our allies and their election processes.
In the months following our election, we have seen Russia use a similar disruption strategy to try to undermine moderate candidates throughout Europe, including elections in France and the Netherlands. The Kremlin has also targeted German Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party and German State computers.
The goal of these Russian attacks against our democracy and those of our allies is clear. In testimony before Congress this year, experts across the political spectrum have stated that Russia’s goal is straightforward—to undermine confidence in our democratic process, generate doubt about the legitimacy of our elections, and undermine the unity and resolve of the NATO alliance. They want to undermine confidence in democracy and the unity that has been demonstrated through NATO over many decades.
We have seen these unprecedented attacks on our democracy and on the democracies of our allies. The world is looking at us—and I am sure many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are hearing from officials from around the world, including our NATO allies—and is asking: Why is it that the United States has not taken any action to protect its democracy?
Why haven’t we responded to an attack that goes to the heart of our democratic system of government? Why aren’t we working closely and urgently with our allies to prevent these efforts to subvert our elections? Why, instead, are we hearing reports that President Trump is considering giving back the use of properties that the Russians used to spy on us, including one in my State of Maryland, on the Eastern Shore?
Following the overwhelming evidence of Russian interference in our elections, the Obama administration took some very limited measures to punish the Russians for those efforts, including denying them access to those properties. Those sanctions, of course, are on top of the already existing sanctions with respect to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. It is very important that we not talk about unwinding sanctions that have been put in place. That would only reward the Russians for the actions they have taken. Instead, we need to move on and pass legislation to send a clear message that we will sanction Russia for the actions it took to undermine our democratic process right here at home.
As our colleague Senator MCCAIN said yesterday on this floor, ‘‘The United States of America needs to send a strong message to Vladimir Putin and any other aggressor that we will not tolerate attacks on our democracy.’’
This is the time for all Americans to be patriots and not partisans. So, as the Senate soon considers a measure relating to sanctions on Iran, it is important that, at the same time, we enact sanctions against Russia for its violations of our democratic process.
I am a cosponsor of a number of bills that have been introduced to impose sanctions on Russia for that interference, and a number of those proposals are now being converted into amendments that will be offered. In addition to those Russian sanctions amendments that have been proposed, I have filed two additional amendments to ensure that we as a nation are thinking strategically about our longterm approach to combatting Russia’s cyber warfare, that we are shoring up our own cyber defenses in advance of our next elections, and that we are not rewarding Putin for these attacks by returning the diplomatic compounds that he used to spy on us.
My amendments would ensure that we have a concerted and unified strategy, developed with our NATO allies and European partners, to counter Russia’s cyber attacks, including its efforts to undermine our democratic elections. We do not currently have any kind of coordinated, developed strategy here in our own country or with our NATO and other allies.
My amendments would require the FBI to establish a high-level cyber security liaison for Presidential campaigns and major national political party committees to ensure that we do not have a repeat of the 2016 elections or at least that we are prepared to confront it. The liaison would share cyber threats as they arise and cyber security protocols with these organizations to stave off cyber attacks.
These amendments would also prevent the executive branch from returning the diplomatic compounds that Russia used to spy on us. They would prevent the return of those compounds until the Secretary of State certifies that Russia is no longer conducting cyber attacks against the United States that threaten our national security, our economy, or our financial stability.
It is outrageous that this administration is actually thinking of rolling back very modest sanctions that were put in place as a result of its attack on our democracy rather than joining us here in Congress on a bipartisan basis to make it clear that one cannot attack our democracy with impunity.
Mr. Comey’s testimony today and the work of the committees here and of Special Counsel Mueller are part of an ongoing effort to determine whether there was any collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign. That investigation will continue. People will investigate whether there are ongoing efforts to derail or disrupt or obstruct those investigations, and that will be a process which will play out over many months. But there is no reason to wait another moment before we take action on the question for which there is no dispute and no disagreement—the fact that the Russians interfered in our elections. Maybe yesterday
