Category Archives: Adam Schiff

Democrats furious after intelligence officials cancel in-person election security briefings

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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday said it would provide election-security information to Congress through written materials rather than in-person briefings, sparking outrage among Democrats just two months before the presidential election. In letters to the House and Senate intelligence committees, among others, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said his office would provide lawmakers with “written finished intelligence products” on foreign threats to the election to prevent leaks of classified information and ensure the materials aren’t “misunderstood” or “politicized.” The move highlights the partisan fight over election security material as U.S. officials warn that Russia is once again interfering in the electoral process for the benefit of President Donald Trump. After one routine election-security briefing for lawmakers in February in which an intelligence official said Russia had a preference for Trump, the president was reportedly irate that Democrats received the information before he did. Trump […]

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Dem lawmakers want FBI briefing on foreign interference efforts in 2020 election

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Four senior Democratic lawmakers have asked the FBI to brief all members of Congress on foreign efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, citing an ongoing disinformation campaign. “We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate and the presidential election in November,” wrote Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray last week. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also signed the letter. The four lawmakers did not elaborate on the nature of the foreign interference campaign targeting Congress, but they did include a classified addendum to the letter that draws on the Trump administration’s […]

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Schiff wants ODNI to scrub out politics from election security briefs

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Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, wrote to Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell on Monday asking him to share communications about an intelligence briefing on election security provided to lawmakers last month over concerns that some of the information may have been politicized, according to the letter. During the intelligence briefing in question, which took place behind closed doors March 10, intelligence officials told lawmakers that Russia was not directly supporting any presidential candidates in the buildup to the 2020 presidential election, according to The New York Times. Just days earlier, U.S. intelligence officials told the House Intelligence Committee that Russia had a preference for President Donald Trump’s candidacy, as CyberScoop reported. The discrepancy in the two briefings raised concerns that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence began politicizing possible election interference information shared with Congress just after a new acting DNI took the reins. Just days before […]

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Lawmakers ask intelligence community for ‘deepfakes’ assessment

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The intelligence community should assess how foreign governments could use so-called “deepfake” technology to harm U.S. national security interests, a bipartisan trio of lawmakers says. Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., wrote to the director of national intelligence Thursday, asking about technologies federal agencies or private companies could use to combat use of the content. Examples of it — including doctored videos involving famous people — have caught the public’s attention recently. “You have repeatedly raised the alarm about disinformation campaigns in our elections and other efforts to exacerbate political and social divisions in our society to weaken our nation,” the lawmakers wrote toDirector of National Intelligence Dan Coats. “We are deeply concerned that deep fake technology could soon be deployed by malicious foreign actors.” The rise of increasingly realistic deepfakes — video, audio, and images fueled by machine-learning algorithms and other tools — has prompted a conversation […]

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Lawmakers call for action following revelations that APT28 posed as ISIS online

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The world got a fresh reminder Tuesday of the difficulties associated with assigning blame for hacking – and of the consequences when a case of mistaken identity takes hold. New evidence reinforces the notion that a group dubbed the CyberCaliphate, which sent death threats to the wives of U.S. military personnel in 2015 under the banner of the Islamic State, is actually an infamous Russian-government-linked hacking group accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Associated Press reported. Activity from the CyberCaliphate coincided with attempts by the Russian group, known as APT28 or Fancy Bear, to breach the womens’ email accounts, according to the Associated Press. The episode brings to life established links between the CyberCaliphate and APT28 in a way that no cybersecurity research did. The hacking victims were led to believe that jihadists, and not state-backed Russians, were breaching their accounts and leaving threatening messages. Amy […]

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