The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday upheld the assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia helped President Donald Trump win the 2016 election.
“The Committee has spent the last 16 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft and analytic work underpinning the Intelligence Community Assessment and sees no reason to dispute the conclusions,” Sen. Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., the panel’s chairman, said in a statement.
Lawmakers released an unclassified report on Tuesday, outlining why they chose to back the ICA ruling — which stated that “Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump” during the election.
“The Committee found that the ICA provided a range of all-source reporting to support these assessments,” the Senate panel said. “The Committee concurs with intelligence and open-source assessments that this influence campaign was approved by President Putin.”
Furthermore, “a body of reporting, to include different intelligence disciplines, open source reporting on Russian leadership policy preferences, and Russian media content, showed that Moscow sought to denigrate Secretary Clinton.”
The report contradicts an assessment that came from Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year, which placed blame on the intelligence community for the Kremlin’s interference. While it does not address the issue of collusion, the document does acknowledge and agree with the ICA conclusion about there being a “clear preference” for Trump.
