President Donald Trump has long been faced with allegations that the 2016 Elections were rigged by Russia to place him in office. After a long while, the Senate Intelligence Committee confirms the said allegations.
Politico reports that the bipartisan report by the Senate Committee, chaired by Republican North Carolina Senator Richard Burr, reaffirmed the United States intelligence community’s assessment back in 2017 that the Russian government assisted in putting Trump in office. This would then refute Trump’s efforts of trying to portray the allegations as a “hoax” created by the Democrats along with the so-called “deep state.”
The Senate panel and committee aides examined all the sources and methods that were used to gather the said intelligence reports, to the actions taken by the Kremlin in Russia. Although the final report which was 158-pages long was heavily redacted, the panel’s conclusion was clear. “The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusions,” said Burr in a statement. Burr also praised the intelligence community for their “strong tradecraft” and analytical reasoning.
The panel’s vice chairman Democrat Virginia Senator Mark Warner also praised the intelligence agencies’ work. Warner added that there was no reason to doubt that due to the success of the Russians’ interference in 2016, they will try again in 2020.
The panel’s findings and conclusion also happen to line up with a previous bipartisan statement back in 2017, when Senate Intelligence leaders also endorsed the assessment made by the agencies. This conclusion is the fourth out of the five reports that will be released confirming the interference of the Kremlin in the United States elections.
The findings from 2017 stated, “Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. Democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.”
A long-running theory among the right-wing is that the assessment back in 2017 was “rigged by a group of hand-picked intelligence analysts spearheaded by former CIA Director John Brennan. The newest report now follows the news of a prosecutor hired by Attorney General William Barr was reportedly looking into Brennan’s role in the said assessment.