NASHVILLE – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker plans to have his panel review a CIA assessment that Russia interfered in the November election to help Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
A spokeswoman for the Tennessee Republican said “the committee plans to systematically look at this issue in the broader context of our overall Russia policy and will begin with both a classified briefing and an open hearing on Russia in early January when the Senate returns.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee and Armed Services Committees have announced similar actions. Trump, meanwhile, has labeled the CIA assessments about Russia, which began leaking out last week, “ridiculous.”
The Washington Post reported last week that the CIA concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Trump win the presidency over Democrat Hillary Clinton and not simply to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system.
Intelligence officials were reported to have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Clinton’s campaign chairman.