Report: no evidence of foreign influence in 2018 US elections

Acting US Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Tuesday released a joint statement claiming that foreign interference had no influence on the 2018 elections. The full report was submitted to President Donald Trump on Monday and remains classified.

During the election cycle the Department of Justice and Homeland Security worked with “federal, state, local, and private sector partners” in every state to secure election infrastructure.

They concluded there is no evidence that any foreign activity had a material impact on the outcome of the election. The Director of National Intelligence stated in December that they did not have any intelligence pointing to compromises in voting or vote counting in the midterm election.

Last year Congress approved $380 million to safeguard voting systems and work with local governments to prevent interference. Last week officials warned that Russia and China are already targeting the 2020 election.

The investigation into Trump’s involvement with Russia and the 2016 election is still ongoing. The Russian government was operating through the Internet Research Agency (IRA) to spread disinformation to millions of users on social media—experts say this activity is likely to pick up again.

An FBI report from December 2016 stated the “activity by Russian intelligence services is part of a decade-long campaign of cyber-enabled operations directed at the U.S. government and its citizens.”

Source: Jurist