FBI Director James Comey told a Senate committee on Tuesday that the Russian government did attempt to hack computer networks of Republican organizations but that the evidence shows that Russia gained entry into older email “domains” of the Republican National Committee (RNC), not domains associated with the 2016 election campaign.
“There was evidence that there was hacking directed at state level organizations, state level campaigns and the RNC but old domains of the RNC, that is email domains that they were no longer using, and that information was harvested from there but it was old stuff,” Comey told the Intelligence Committee in response to a question by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) about Russian hacking or Republican networks, including that of President-elect Donald Trump, during the 2016 election campaigns. “None of that was released. We did not develop any evidence that the Trump campaign or the current RNC was successfully hacked.”
The open hearing was held to review an unclassified assessment by the intelligence community that the Russian government, at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in 2016 initiated a comprehensive influence operation against the United States presidential election to degrade the campaign of Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton in favor of Trump. Later the committee was scheduled to host a classified hearing on the report by the intelligence community.
James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, said it is “correct” that only information harvested by the Russians from Democratic entities was publicly released.
Comey declined to comment whether the FBI may be investigating potential relationships between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
“I would never comment on investigations whether we have one or not in an open forum like this,” Comey said to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who asked about reported relationships between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Wyden said the public has a right to know this information and warned that if there is a delay until after Trump takes office on Jan. 20 then “I’m not sure it’s going to happen.”