Updates | The Week of October 16
The White House is rushing the congressional probe into Russian interference in the election, argues Representative Adam Schiff (WaPo).
A growing number of states are adding taking cybersecurity precautions in response to Russian interference in the 2016 election (NYT).
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team interviewed former chief of staff to President Trump, Reince Priebus, for a full day on Friday (WaPo).
Congressional investigators are examining connections between social media and the 2016 election, including connections involving the digital director for President Trump’s campaign (WSJ).
Artin Afkhami, writing at Just Security, offers a comprehensive timeline of President Trump and obstruction of justice.
Hillary Clinton called Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, a “tool of Russian Intelligence” (Politico).
Attorney General Jeff Sessions will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday (USA Today).
Attorney General Sessions changed his story on Russian contacts in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee (Just Security).
- The Committee should address AG Sessions’s shifting and false statements on Russia, write Ryan Goodman and Artin Afkhami at Just Security.
Michael Flynn Jr. is likely to receive a subpoena to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, having earlier declined to testify before the body (ABC News).
- The Senate Intelligence Committee has requested that the son of former national security adviser Michael Flynn provide documents and testimony in the Russian interference investigation (Reuters).
Senator Jeanne Shaheen has expressed “deep concerns” to Defense Secretary Mattis about reports that Russia reviewed the source code of software used by the American public sector (The Hill).
Special Counsel Mueller conducted an interview with a cybsecurity expert who alleges that a GOP operative asked him to collude with Russians during the 2016 election (The Hill).
President Trump suggested that the FBI may have fabricated the dossier alleging ties between the Trump campaign and Russia (WaPo).
Officials from President Trump’s campaign pushed tweets containing Russian propaganda in the days before the 2016 election (Daily Beast).
Russian internet trolls ran a Twitter account that claimed to represent the Tennessee Republican Party (The Hill).
Google has spoken to investigators on the House and Senate Intelligence committees ahead of hearings on Russian influence (The Hill).
President George W. Bush gave a speech in which he warned about the effects of Russia’s intervention (WaPo).
- The speech was seen as an implicit criticism of President Trump (NYT; LA Times; Politico).
- This is what a president is supposed to sound like, writes Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post.
- President Bush’s speech displayed the difficulty in criticizing President Trump while courting his supporters (WaPo).
CIA Director Mike Pompeo distorted U.S. spy agency findings when he claimed that U.S. intelligence agencies had determined that Russian interference did not affect the outcome of the 2016 election (WaPo, Politico).