Senate Democrats Urge Hearing on Russian Involvement in DNC Hack

August 4, 2016 by Jimm Phillips|Capitol Hill

Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., urged Judiciary Committee Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to hold an oversight hearing into possible Russian government involvement in the hacking of Democratic National Committee servers. Coons is the Oversight ranking member. DNC-hired investigators said the hack, which resulted in WikiLeaks’ publication last month of almost 20,000 emails from seven top DNC officials’ accounts, had Russian government backing (see 1607270061). The FBI has been investigating the DNC hack and has avoided implicating Russia. An oversight hearing on the DNC hack should be used “to determine whether existing federal criminal statutes and federal court jurisdiction sufficiently address conduct related to foreign entities that could undermine our elections,” Coons and Whitehouse said in a letter to Cruz. Coons and Whitehouse also raised concerns about GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s comments on the DNC hack, which the senators said are an “unprecedented call for a foreign government to spy on a U.S. citizen and interfere with a U.S election.” Trump told reporters last week that he hopes Russia is “able to find the 33,000 emails that are missing -- I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” Trump later claimed he was being sarcastic. Trump’s comments “implicate U.S. criminal laws prohibiting engagement with foreign governments that threaten the country’s interests, including the Logan Act and the Espionage Act,” Coons and Whitehouse said. The comments also invite Russia to “engage in conduct that would violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and, if performed by the U.S. government, would contravene the Fourth Amendment.” A cybersecurity lobbyist told us it’s unlikely a hearing on the DNC hack would focus on Trump’s comments, particularly if Cruz chaired it because the longstanding feud between Cruz and Trump would make a focus on the comments appear to be “unseemly.” Cruz’s office didn’t comment.