Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says two Senate committees will investigate CIA allegations that Russia deployed hackers to disrupt the American presidential election to help President-elect Donald Trump and hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton.
As USA Today reports, McConnell says the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee will conduct bipartisan reviews.
“Obviously, any foreign breach of our cybersecurity measures is disturbing and I strongly condemn any such efforts,” McConnell, R-Kentucky, says in a statement he read to reporters at a news conference today at the U.S. Capitol.
McConnell says he agrees with incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Armed Services Chairman John McCain and Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr that possible Russian interference in the U.S. election “cannot be a partisan issue.”
“Let me remind all of you that the Senate Intelligence Committee—on which I and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee sit as ex officio members—is more than capable of conducting a complete review of this matter,” McConnell says. “And Senator Schumer will soon join us on that committee and he can review this matter through the regular order.”
McConnell emphasizes that he has faith in the CIA and the entire U.S. intelligence community. Trump has dismissed the CIA’s analysis of Russian involvement in the election as “ridiculous.”
Schumer sent out a tweet saying he welcomes McConnell’s support for a “thorough bipartisan investigation.”
USA Today has the full story.
