Shaheen Questions Top Intelligence Officials About Russia’s Strategy to Undermine US Alliances Through Cyber Attacks

(Washington, DC) — Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on European Affairs, participated in an Armed Services Committee hearing on foreign cyber threats to the United States. During the hearing, Shaheen questioned Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre, and Director of the National Security Agency Admiral Michael Rogers on Russia’s strategy of using cyber to undermine the U.S. – European alliance and “the very democracies that make up that alliance” through interference in elections. Director Clapper agreed that Russia’s actions are intended to “drive wedges between the U.S. and Western Europe.”

Shaheen, a strong advocate for NATO and U.S. security alliances, further pressed the intelligence officials on whether there is collaboration with U.S. allies that are also targeted by Russia’s cyber hacking. “Given it is a strategy aimed at the U.S., is there an effort underway to work with our allies, through NATO or otherwise…. to respond to this?” Shaheen questioned, prompting Under Secretary Lettre to say that while there is interest in doing that, the U.S. “has not cracked the code in doing it effectively yet.”

Shaheen has been a leader in Congress calling for Russian accountability for interference in the election. Shaheen first called for a hearing in September, nearly two months before the November election, in a letter sent to the leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.