Before Election Mitch McConnell Threatened to Politicize CIA Report of Russian Intervention In US Election

McConnell’s Wife Now Trump Nominee for Secretary of Transportation

A bombshell report in The Washington Post Friday night details a secret CIA assessment that finds with certainty that Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election and worked to get Donald Trump elected. The Post also reports that before the election, U.S. intelligence officials, at the behest of President Barack Obama, informed top members of the House and the Senate. The president urged a bipartisan group of 12 House and Senate leaders to inform the American public of the assessment, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) threatened the White House, effectively killing the president’s efforts to share the information publicly.

In a secure room in the Capitol used for briefings involving classified information, administration officials broadly laid out the evidence U.S. spy agencies had collected, showing Russia’s role in cyber-intrusions in at least two states and in hacking the emails of the Democratic organizations and individuals.

And they made a case for a united, bipartisan front in response to what one official described as “the threat posed by unprecedented meddling by a foreign power in our election process.”

The Democratic leaders in the room unanimously agreed on the need to take the threat seriously. Republicans, however, were divided, with at least two GOP lawmakers reluctant to accede to the White House requests.

According to several officials, McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.

Some of the Republicans in the briefing also seemed opposed to the idea of going public with such explosive allegations in the final stages of an election, a move that they argued would only rattle public confidence and play into Moscow’s hands.

McConnell’s office did not respond to a request for comment. After the election, Trump chose McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, as his nominee for transportation secretary.

The Washington Post reports that some Democrats took serious issue with the president’s unwillingness to move ahead despite Republican threats.

Some Clinton supporters saw the White House’s reluctance to act without bipartisan support as further evidence of an excessive caution in facing adversaries.

“The lack of an administration response on the Russian hacking cannot be attributed to Congress,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who was at the September meeting. “The administration has all the tools it needs to respond. They have the ability to impose sanctions. They have the ability to take clandestine means. The administration has decided not to utilize them in a way that would deter the Russians, and I think that’s a problem.”

 

NEW: Trump Responds to Report of CIA Assessment Russia Intervened in US Election