{"slug":"trump-russia-election-interference-acceptance-2016","title":"2016 Russian Election Interference: Mueller Findings and Senate Intelligence Committee","date":"2016-06-09","lastUpdated":"2020-08-18","description":"The Mueller investigation (2019) and the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report (2020) both documented extensive Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, including the Internet Research Agency social media influence campaign and hacking and release of Democratic emails. The Trump campaign's receipt of a June 2016 meeting offer promising Russian government 'dirt' on Clinton, Manafort's sharing of internal polling data with Kilimnik (assessed as linked to Russian intelligence), and candidate Trump's public invitation for Russia to find Clinton's emails were all documented. Mueller found insufficient evidence to prove criminal conspiracy but identified extensive contacts. The Senate report called Manafort's Kilimnik contact 'a grave counterintelligence threat.'","summary":"The Senate Intelligence Committee's August 2020 bipartisan report documented that Paul Manafort shared confidential Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian political consultant the committee assessed had ties to Russian intelligence. The report characterized this as 'a grave counterintelligence threat.' The report also documented extensive contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russian nationals. Mueller found the hacking and dumping of Democratic emails benefited the Trump campaign and that the campaign was aware of, and made use of, the releases — but did not find sufficient evidence of criminal conspiracy between the campaign and the Russian government.","category":"foreign-policy","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/us/politics/senate-intelligence-trump-russia-report.html","title":"Senate Intelligence Report Documents Grave Counterintelligence Threats","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senate-intelligence-committee-russia-report/2020/08/18/2c2a3930-e14b-11ea-82d8-5e55d47e90ca_story.html","title":"Senate Intelligence Committee concludes Russia posed 'grave' threat through 2016 election","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/senate-intelligence-report-russia-manafort-kilimnik","title":"Senate intelligence report details Russian interference, Manafort-Kilimnik contact","publisher":"The Associated Press"},{"url":"https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/publications/report-select-committee-intelligence-united-states-senate-russian-active-measures","title":"Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence — Russian Active Measures Campaigns (Volume V)","publisher":"U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Russia","election-interference","Mueller","Manafort","Senate-Intelligence","pre-presidency","hacking"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2016-06-09","title":"Trump Tower meeting — Russia offers campaign 'dirt'","summary":"Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort meet with Russian nationals at Trump Tower after being offered 'very high level and sensitive information' from the Russian government against Clinton. Trump Jr.'s response: 'I love it.'"},{"date":"2016-07-22","title":"WikiLeaks releases hacked DNC emails — timed to convention","summary":"WikiLeaks releases thousands of hacked Democratic National Committee emails, timed to maximum damage at the start of the Democratic convention. The Mueller report identifies GRU as the source and documents the Trump campaign's use of the releases."},{"date":"2016-07-27","title":"Trump publicly invites Russian hacking of Clinton","summary":"At a press conference, Trump says: 'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.' The GRU attempts to access Clinton email servers for the first time that day."},{"date":"2019-04-18","title":"Mueller report documents interference and contacts","summary":"Mueller report documents the Russian interference operation, extensive campaign-Russia contacts, and 10 obstruction instances, while finding insufficient evidence to charge a criminal conspiracy."},{"date":"2020-08-18","title":"Senate Intelligence Committee: Manafort sharing is 'grave counterintelligence threat'","summary":"The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Volume V report documents Manafort's sharing of polling data with Kilimnik and characterizes it as 'a grave counterintelligence threat.' The report confirms the Russian origin of the interference operation."}],"location":{"name":"New York, NY / Moscow, Russia","lat":40.7128,"lng":-74.006},"custom":{"era":"pre-presidency","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"U.S. democratic process; American voters whose choices were influenced by foreign interference; political opponents whose communications were hacked and selectively released","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"Presidential candidate; accepted meeting offering Russian government dirt on opponent; publicly invited Russian hacking; made use of hacked materials; took no action against Russian interference as president","institution":"Trump 2016 campaign"},{"name":"Paul Manafort","role":"Trump campaign chairman; shared confidential polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik (assessed as Russian intelligence-linked)","institution":"Trump 2016 campaign"},{"name":"Russian Intelligence Services (GRU)","role":"Conducted hacking operation; provided stolen Democratic emails to WikiLeaks for timed release","institution":"Russian Federation"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2020-08-18","summary":"Updated with Senate Intelligence Committee report."}]}}