House Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are urging their GOP chair, Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, for “immediate hearings” on the hacking threats to the U.S. electoral system in 2018. In a letter to Goodlatte, Democrats expressed alarm that the Justice Department has “taken little—if any—action to secure our election systems” in advance of November. Politico writes:
“We cannot afford to ignore the mounting evidence of a coordinated effort to undermine the most basic and essential aspects of democratic process,” the lawmakers told Goodlatte, pointing to news stories about Russian intrusions into voter registration databases, voting system vendors and state election offices. […]
Democrats are also angry with the White House for not imposing congressionally mandated sanctions on Russia in retaliation for its 2016 actions.
Specifically, Thursday’s letter harps on a vow Attorney General Jeff Session made at a November hearing to brief the committee on DOJ’s election security work. The Democrats wrote that DOJ still has not provided a briefing or responded to questions sent to Sessions in early December.
The letter comes on the heels of a top Homeland Security official this week finally confirming that Russia did successfully hack the election systems of some states in 2016. As a part of the hearings, Democrats would like to hear from leaders of the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, who are giving mixed signals about how much action the Trump administration has taken to prevent future incursions by Russia or other hostile actors.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are also pushing for public hearings related to Russia’s attack on our elections, including testimony from Jared Kushner and Trump Jr. about their 2016 Trump Tower meeting with the Kremlin-linked lawyer and her coterie.
Despite numerous legislative proposals and several congressional reports, Congress has yet to pass a bill that specifically addresses election security with just weeks left before the 2018 primary season begins.
Somehow, the GOP-led Congress has failed to do anything at all in support of protecting our upcoming elections from intrusion. That’s interesting given that they also blocked efforts to alert the public about Russian hacking prior to Election Day in 2016.