The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee spent more than three years examining Russia’s attack on the United States’ 2016 elections, and the panel found so much information, it had to release its findings in multiple volumes.
Volume I, which was released over a year ago, documented Moscow targeting U.S. election infrastructure. Volume II highlighted Russia’s use of social media to help advance Donald Trump’s candidacy. Volume III examined the initial U.S. response to the Russian attack. Volume IV reviewed the intelligence community’s assessment from 2016, and determined that it was accurate, Trump’s insistence to the contrary notwithstanding.
But the release of Volume V yesterday suggested that the Senate Intelligence Committee saved the best for last.
In a thousand-page bipartisan report released Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee painted a stark portrait of a Trump campaign eager to accept help from a foreign power in 2016, as well as a candidate closely involved in the effort…. The committee endorsed the view of Mueller and the Stone prosecution team that the Trump campaign eagerly embraced Russian help in 2016 and considered the hacked emails its “October surprise,” even though campaign officials knew the material had been stolen by Russian intelligence.
NBC News’ report added that the Senate report, approved by the Intelligence Committee’s Republican and Democratic members, represents “the most detailed account to date of the Trump campaign’s embrace of Russian election interference,” and included “never-before-seen evidence about Trump and Russia.”
Some of the known elements of the story have now been confirmed with uncontested clarity. Vladimir Putin’s government targeted U.S. elections for the express purpose of helping elevate Donald Trump to power. The Republican’s political operation sought Russian assistance, embraced Russian assistance, capitalized on Russian assistance, lied about Russian assistance, and took steps to obstruct the investigation into Russian assistance.
But those are just the basics. As Rachel noted on the air last night, the bipartisan Senate report also documented the fact that Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016, Paul Manafort, was in direct, frequent, and secret communication with a Russian intelligence officer throughout his time on the Trump campaign. In fact, the report identifies that officer, Konstantin Kilimnik, and concludes that he was tasked by the Kremlin with helping run Moscow’s influence operations abroad.
Trump’s operation shared internal information with the Russian intelligence officer, and the report raised the possibility of the Republican campaign chair possibly being directly involved in the Russian operation against Hillary Clinton.
The same Senate report documented the Trump campaign’s willingness to assist the Russian attack on our election, amplifying the leaks of Democratic materials stolen by Kremlin-linked operatives, and highlighted “coordination” between Team Trump and Wikileaks, which was responsible for releasing the documents stolen by Russia.








