The US Senate Just Scheduled a Hearing On Russia’s Pro-Trump Hacks
The theft of the presidential election is not going to go unanswered, much to the chagrin of Dictator-elect Donald Trump. Russian involvement in the hacking of the Democratic party to influence the election will receive a formal hearing next week (before the inauguration) thanks to Senator John McCain (R-AZ).
McCain, who is the Senate Armed Services Chairman, broke with his party’s leadership to schedule a hearing on Jan. 5. The announcement of the impending hearing comes after the White House announced punitive actions to be enforced on the Russian government. The White House statement, in part, said, “Russia’s cyberactivities were intended to influence the election, erode faith in US democratic institutions, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the US government. These actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.” Obama called for Russian diplomats to be ejected from the United States and its embassies around the world, while also issuing specific sanctions and condemnations towards individual Russian operatives and entities.
The news of the hearing and the sanctions have not been welcome news to Trump who prefers the entire matter be brushed under the rug. Trump said, “It’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things.” Trump’s position is as transparent as his skin is thin. It is the president’s sworn duty to uphold the constitution of the United States, and examining the Russian government’s influence on the presidential election should be Trump’s first order of business.
Slated to appear at the hearing, which will take place only three days after the new Congress is sworn in, will be the Director of the National Intelligence Agency James Clapper, The National Security Agency and Cyber Command Chief Mike Rogers and the Undersecretary of Defense for intelligence Marcel Lettre. The position of the various intelligence agency heads will be curious as they serve at the pleasure of the president, but they will also be under oath. It is Trump’s position for this entire matter to go away without fanfare, and as such it will be an interesting balancing act to observe which direction the agency heads will bend.
The information covered in the hearing will include the CIA’s devastating report which originally tied the Russian government to the hacking, of which the FBI also corroborated. Trump and his team have done their best impressions of a contortionist by attempting to undermine the CIA’s intelligence gathering capability by citing their wrong intelligence leading up to the invasion of Iraq. However, that rhetoric is falling on deaf ears and soon enough the American people will have a better understanding of the size and scope of just how in bed Trump has been with the Russians. This will all happen before Trump is even sworn into office, but unfortunately regardless of what evidence the hearing finds it will not be enough to prevent Trump from being sworn in on inauguration day.
