Democrats demand DHS release report warning of election interference

A group of key Senate Democrats on Thursday demanded that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publicly release a bulletin that said a foreign actor is working to undermine faith in voting by mail this fall.

The senators, who included Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), said acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf should release the “widely distributed” Sept. 3 analysis compiled by the agency’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A).

“This document demonstrates that a foreign actor is attempting to undermine faith in the US electoral system, particularly vote-by-mail systems, in a manner that is consistent with the rhetoric being used by President Trump, Attorney General [William] Barr, and others,” the senators wrote in a letter to Wolf.

“The document has been marked ‘Unclassified/For Official Use Only,’ meaning that its release would not pose a risk to sources and methods and that it has already been widely distributed around the country through unclassified channels,” the senators added. “It is now critical and urgent that the American people have access to this document so that they can understand the context of Trump’s statements and actions.”

Other lawmakers who signed the letter include Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Sen. Gary Peters (Mich.), the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; Senate Rules Committee ranking member Amy Klobuchar (Minn.); and Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.

DHS did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment on the letter.

The document the senators were referring to was likely the assessment, first reported by ABC News last month, where I&A determined that Russian media and other groups were intentionally “amplifying” concerns around mail-in voting to undermine U.S. elections.

The bulletin noted that the efforts have been ongoing since March and that Russian state media has participated in the effort.

“We assess that Russia is likely to continue amplifying criticisms of vote-by-mail and shifting voting processes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to undermine public trust in the electoral process,” I&A wrote in the bulletin, which was sent to federal and state law enforcement partners but not rolled out publicly.

ABC News also reported that DHS had withheld a July bulletin that warned of Russian efforts to spread disinformation alluding to the “poor mental health” of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in order to sway the election.

A spokesperson for DHS told The Hill last month that the July bulletin was not disseminated to recipients because it “lacked the necessary context and evidence for broader dissemination.” Wolf said during a Fox News interview at the time that he hoped to “see that report out soon.”

Election security concerns have increased over the past two months after a senior official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) publicly rolled out an assessment warning that Russia was interfering in the presidential election in favor of President Trump, while China and Iran were interfering in favor of Biden.

Congress has received multiple classified briefings on election security from top administration officials in recent months, though Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe sparked criticism in August when he announced that ODNI would no longer provide in-person election security briefings to all lawmakers and would instead submit written statements and continue in-person meetings for a select group.

Ratcliffe was among the officials who briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee last week on the election threat landscape, a briefing that came the same day the Senate Armed Services Committee received a classified briefing on election cybersecurity preparedness from top Pentagon officials.

Democrats, including Wyden, emerged from those briefings calling for information on election threats to be declassified for the American public to see.

“I think that clearly the American people as of now are not going to get what they need,” Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The Hill last week. “I am not confident that the American people will get what they need to know in terms of information about the major issues in front of us, and taking steps to change it.”