Intelligence Committee prepares election security plan to thwart Russian hacking

WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said the panel will soon issue recommendations to help states thwart Russian efforts to hack election systems in advance of congressional primaries that begin in March.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who serves as vice chairman, said the committee could release its plan this month or next. The first congressional primary is less than two months away — March 6 in Texas. 

"I do think there's a real sense of urgency," Warner said in an interview with USA TODAY. "The one thing we do know with certainty is that Russian interference in our elections did not end on Election Day 2016."

Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., also has indicated that he expects the committee to provide security advice to states early this year.

The Russian government attempted to hack election systems in 21 states in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, the Department of Homeland Security said last September. The key battleground states of Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin were among those targeted.

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Most of those efforts failed, and there was no evidence that any votes were changed. However, in Illinois, Russian hackers gained entry to the state's voter database and to the personal information of more than 90,000 voters, including their dates of birth, driver's licenses and partial Social Security numbers.

The security and sophistication of voting systems varies from state to state. Experts recently warned the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that Congress needs to give states more money to buy secure voting machines. They also recommended that states stop using touchscreen voting machines and replace them with paper-based systems such as optical scanners that tabulate ballots and provide tangible evidence of election results.

Warner said the Intelligence Committee decided it couldn't afford to wait until its broader investigation of Russian interference in last year's election is complete before coming out with recommendations on election security.

The committee is investigating overall Russian meddling in last year's election, including Kremlin-backed efforts to use social media to divide American voters and sow discontent. It also is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Warner could not say when the probe would be complete.

"I'd hoped we'd be done earlier, but there continues to be new stories, new threads that need to be investigated," the senator said.

The controversial new book about the Trump White House — "Fire and Fury" by Michael Wolff — has raised questions about whether lawmakers should interview former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, Warner said. 

The book quoted Bannon as saying that a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that Donald Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort took with Russians promising "dirt" on Hillary Clinton was "treasonous." Bannon said Sunday that he was referring only to Manafort when he made those comments.

Burr has said he doesn't see the point of interviewing Bannon since the strategist was not part of the Trump campaign when the meeting took place. But Warner said he is more interested in quotes attributed to Bannon that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia is centered on money laundering.

"Was that just a claim (by Bannon) or were there facts behind those statements? I'd like to find out," Warner said.

He said he and Burr will work together to decide what witnesses to call. Warner said Trump Jr., Kushner and Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney, have all promised to testify in public before the committee to give senators a chance to question them.

Burr also has said he would like to hear public testimony from GPS Fusion, the opposition research firm that hired former British spy Christopher Steele to compile the now-infamous dossier on Trump's alleged ties to the Russians. GPS Fusion was hired by an attorney for the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

Warner said he believes the panel will be able to reach bipartisan consensus on a final report when its Russia investigation is finished. The other two congressional committees conducting Russia probes — the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee — have been plagued by bitter partisan disputes. 

"If we can keep a bipartisan, rational, just-the-facts approach, that's a pretty significant contribution," Warner said.

He said Burr has had to fend off pressure from the White House and from "irresponsible" House Republicans to shut down the investigation prematurely for partisan reasons.

"On the Democratic side, there are some folks drawing conclusions about the president's guilt before all the facts are in," Warner said. "I'm reserving judgement until we get all the facts."

In a recent speech on the Senate floor, Warner urged his colleagues from both parties to defend Mueller's criminal investigation from any attempt by the president or House Republicans to undermine the probe. Some House conservatives have ramped up accusations in recent weeks that Mueller and the FBI are biased against Trump.

Warner said he received positive feedback to his speech from both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and is hopeful the chamber would defend Mueller if anyone in the Trump administration tried to fire him.

"It would be an historic moment," Warner said. "It would be a moment that would judge us all."

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