https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/na...016-trump-campaign-eager-accept-help-n1237002
WASHINGTON — In a thousand-page bipartisan report released Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee said the Trump administration obstructed its investigation with "novel claims" of executive privilege. It painted a portrait of a Trump campaign eager to accept help from a foreign power in 2016.
While the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump Campaign sought to maximize the impact of those materials to aid Trump's electoral prospects," the report said. "To do so, the Trump campaign took actions to obtain advance notice about WikiLeaks releases of Clinton emails; took steps to obtain inside information about the content of releases once WikiLeaks began to publish stolen information; created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following their release; and encouraged further theft of information and continued leaks."
Russia and other countries took advantage of the Transition Team's inexperience, transparent opposition to Obama Administration policies, and Trump's desire to deepen ties with Russia, to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct diplomacy," the report said. "The lack of vetting of foreign interactions by Transition officials left the Transition open to influence and manipulation by foreign intelligence services, government leaders, and co-opted business executives."
On Ukraine, the report said that Russian-government operatives from late 2016 until at least January 2020 consistently spread "overlapping false narratives which sought to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and spread false information about the events of 2016."
The report said that Manafort associate Konstatin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer, "almost certainly helped arrange some of the first public messaging that Ukraine had interfered in the U.S. election."
In 2017, the report said, "other Russian-government proxies and personas worked to spread the false narrative that Ukraine interfered in the U.S. election."
The committee "identified no reliable evidence that the Ukrainian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. election."
WASHINGTON — In a thousand-page bipartisan report released Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee said the Trump administration obstructed its investigation with "novel claims" of executive privilege. It painted a portrait of a Trump campaign eager to accept help from a foreign power in 2016.
While the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump Campaign sought to maximize the impact of those materials to aid Trump's electoral prospects," the report said. "To do so, the Trump campaign took actions to obtain advance notice about WikiLeaks releases of Clinton emails; took steps to obtain inside information about the content of releases once WikiLeaks began to publish stolen information; created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following their release; and encouraged further theft of information and continued leaks."
Russia and other countries took advantage of the Transition Team's inexperience, transparent opposition to Obama Administration policies, and Trump's desire to deepen ties with Russia, to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct diplomacy," the report said. "The lack of vetting of foreign interactions by Transition officials left the Transition open to influence and manipulation by foreign intelligence services, government leaders, and co-opted business executives."
On Ukraine, the report said that Russian-government operatives from late 2016 until at least January 2020 consistently spread "overlapping false narratives which sought to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and spread false information about the events of 2016."
The report said that Manafort associate Konstatin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer, "almost certainly helped arrange some of the first public messaging that Ukraine had interfered in the U.S. election."
In 2017, the report said, "other Russian-government proxies and personas worked to spread the false narrative that Ukraine interfered in the U.S. election."
The committee "identified no reliable evidence that the Ukrainian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. election."
