U.S. intelligence officials warned members of Congress as much in a briefing last week that precipitated Trump's accusing acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Joseph Maguire, of "disloyalty," and firing him.
As the New York Times reported:
"Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him."
The Times added that Trump raged about Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), impeachment proceedings manager, being at the briefing.
In 2017, intelligence officials issued a warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an influence campaign in the 2016 election, and developed "a clear preference for President-elect Trump."
In response, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) along with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) tried to pass a bill requiring campaigns to reportforeign election assistanceovertures to the FBI, and another requiring campaigns to report those overtures to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tried to pass the Securing America's Federal Elections (SAFE) Act to provide the Election Assistance Commission additional funding and ban internet-connected and foreign-made voting machines.
Yet Sen. McConnell and his fellow GOP Russophiles have demonstrated they are more interested in allowing Russia carte blanche to have at us.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) blocked Democrats' attempts by employing the Senate's "unanimous consent" rule, whereby any one senator can request unanimous consent to pass a bill, but any other single senator's objection can block the request.
Sen. Wyden asserted:
"America is 266 days away from the 2020 election, and Majority Leader McConnell has yet to take any concrete steps to protect our foreign elections from hacking or foreign interference."
Sen. Blumenthal added:
"There is no doubt that [Trump] will only be emboldened in his efforts to illegally enlist foreign governments in his reelection campaign."
NBC News obtained an Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service threat assessment warning:
"Russia's cyber operations have been successful and, to date, have not been sanctioned enough by the West to force Russia to abandon them. The main goal is to ensure a more beneficial election result for Russia by favoring Russian-friendly candidates or those who have the most divisive influence in the West."
Although Republicans believe Moscow's campaign did not assist Trump specifically, they admit it intended to foment chaos among the electorate.
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