2016 ELECTION/CYBERWAR/INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr said Wednesday [10-4-17] the committee is continuing to investigate potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents meddling in the U.S. election.
Despite the president’s dismissal of possible collusion between his campaign and Russian officials as ‘a hoax,’ Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said the panel is continuing to examine the evidence and has not yet made a conclusion…
Warner warned that Russia’s use of social media to push out disinformation to U.S. voters ‘did not end on Election Day 2016.’ He said the Russians have employed similar tactics to try to disrupt elections in France, the Netherlands and Germany. And he said they are likely to try it again in the 2018 congressional elections in the U.S…
The committee is scheduled to have a Nov. 1 public hearing with officials from Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social media companies to talk about how Russians exploited those sites in last year’s election. Warner said it’s important for Americans to know whether an ad they see on social media is coming from the Russians.
Burr and Warner also warned that Russians will continue to try to infiltrate state election systems. The Department of Homeland Security last week alerted officials in 21 states that Russians tried to hack into their election systems in 2016…
Burr said the panel had been unable to interview Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled a dossier on Donald Trump and his alleged ties to the Russian government, leaving the committee unable to verify its findings.
The dossier, which was published online by Buzzfeed, alleges that Russian operatives obtained potentially compromising personal and financial information about Trump. Moscow has denied having any ‘compromising materials’ on Trump, who dismissed the reports as ‘fake news.’ “
-Erin Kelly, “Senate Intelligence Committee still investigating possible collusion between Trump campaign and Russia,” USA Today, Oct. 4, 2017 03:24pm