Senate Intelligence Committee releases final report on 2016 Russian interference

Washington — A nearly 1,000-page report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday documented a broad set of links and interactions between Russian government operatives and members of the 2016 Trump campaign, adding new details and dimensions to the account laid out last year by special counsel Robert Mueller and raising counterintelligence concerns about certain Russian efforts that may have persisted into the 2020 election season.

Tuesday’s report was the committee’s final, and long-awaited, chapter in its more than three-year investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference, marking the conclusion of what was held up as the last and arguably only bipartisan congressional investigation into the matter.  Spanning 966 pages, it concluded, as have other assessments of Russia’s efforts, that Moscow “engaged in an aggressive, multifaceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.” 

The report, redacted in parts, detailed extensive contacts between Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national who worked closely with Manafort for years. The report labeled Kilimnik a “Russian intelligence officer,” and said Manafort, for reasons the committee could not determine, sought on numerous occasions to “secretly share internal Campaign information with Kilimnik.” It also said the committee obtained “some information” linking Kilimnik to Russian intelligence services’ efforts to hack and leak information to damage Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. 

Overall, the report said, Manafort’s proximity to then-candidate Trump “created opportunities for the Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump Campaign.” Manafort’s willingness to share information with Kilimnik and other Russian operatives, it said, “represented a grave counterintelligence threat.”

Manafort was sentenced last March to a seven-year prison term for fraud charges that stemmed from the special counsel’s investigation, though he was released to home confinement amid concerns over the coronavirus. 

The report also documented, in intricate detail, interactions between Trump associate Roger Stone and Wikileaks — which was at the time still considered a “journalistic entity” by the U.S. government rather than a hostile organization, the report noted — as Wikileaks released concertedly timed, hacked documents that were intended to be damaging to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. 

“WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian influence campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort,” the report said. “Trump and senior Campaign officials sought to obtain advance information about WikiLeaks’s planned releases through Roger Stone.” 

It said Mr. Trump “directed” campaign officials to stay in touch with Stone, who also made numerous phone calls to Mr. Trump personally throughout the spring of 2016, according to the report. Its authors described the Trump campaign as being “elated” by the news of WikiLeaks’ planned releases, noting its senior officials appeared largely “indifferent to the significance of acquiring, promoting, or disseminating materials from a Russian intelligence services hack-and-leak campaign.” 

Stone was convicted in November of seven felony charges that stemmed from Mueller’s investigation, and sentenced to 40 months in prison. Mr. Trump commuted Stone’s sentence last month. In written answers provided to the special counsel, Mr. Trump denied having a recollection of conversations about WikiLeaks with Stone. 

The report also offered new details on a series of other interactions it identified as raising counterintelligence concerns. It said the Russian operatives present at the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, which was attended by Manafort, Donald Trump, Jr. and Jared Kushner, had “significant connections” to the Russian government and its intelligence services. It noted other, lower-level campaign aides like George Papadopoulos — while not determined to have been a “witting co-optee” of Russian intelligence — nonetheless presented a “prime intelligence target and potential vector for malign Russian influence.” And, it said, Russia “took advantage” of the Trump transition team’s relative inexperience and stated desire to deepen ties with Moscow in order to establish “unofficial channels” through which to conduct diplomacy.

“The existence of a cadre of informal advisors to the Transition Team with varying levels of access to the President-elect and varying awareness of foreign affairs presented attractive targets for foreign influence, creating notable counterintelligence vulnerabilities,” the report said.  

The committee’s investigation was almost completely staff-led and involved interviews with hundreds of witnesses, including some overseas, and…