The Senate Intelligence Committee released the fifth and final volume of its bipartisan investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election on Tuesday. The report details contacts between Russian officials and people connected to Donald Trump’s campaign.
According to the committee, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort passed internal campaign information, including polling data and strategy for beating Hillary Clinton, to Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the committee described as a Russian intelligence officer. The report called that relationship a “grave counterintelligence threat.” The committee also said it found evidence that Kilimnik may have been linked to Russian efforts to hack and leak Democratic Party emails. Manafort was later convicted of financial fraud crimes in a separate case.
The report also concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in the hack and leak operation that published stolen Democratic emails. It said WikiLeaks played a key role and “very likely knew” it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort. According to the committee, the Trump campaign sought advance word of upcoming WikiLeaks releases and welcomed the disclosures.
The committee did not only look at Russia. It said the FBI should have acted more aggressively to warn the Democratic National Committee about the hacking, and that the DNC did not take the warnings seriously enough.
The Trump campaign responded by saying the report shows there was no collusion between Russia and the campaign, and called the “Russia Collusion Hoax” the greatest political scandal in the history of the country. Russia has long denied interfering in the election.
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