Senate Report: Former Trump Aide Paul Manafort Shared Campaign Info With Russia

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President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a joint press conference after a meeting in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, 2018.

Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

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The committee found that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally behind the hack and leak operation that published stolen Democratic Party emails, and that WikiLeaks — the website that published them — played a key role and «very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort.»

The Trump campaign sought to take advantage of those leaks by asking for advance notice of the WikiLeaks disclosures, crafting PR strategies around them, and even encouraging «further theft of information and continued leaks.»

This took place at critical moments of the 2016 campaign, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded.

For example, when the Trump campaign was made aware that The Washington Post would be publishing a copy of the now-infamous Access Hollywood tapes, word got to Trump confidante Roger Stone — who tried to get a message to WikiLeaks through an intermediary so that it would publish hacked Democratic Party emails immediately.

WikiLeaks ultimately published stolen emails approximately 30 minutes after the Access Hollywood story was put online.

The Trump campaign responded to the report by saying it was evidence that «there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign,» adding its contention that the «Russia Collusion Hoax is the greatest political scandal in the history of this country.»

The report also finds fault with the FBI: with regards to the hacking of Democratic Party emails, the Senate Intelligence Committee concludes that it did not act aggressively enough to warn the Democratic National Committee about the hacking operation.

But it also says that the DNC did not take these warnings seriously enough, and that there was poor communication on both sides.

The report also faults the FBI for giving «unjustified credence» to the information in the Steele Dossier, a compendium of reporting from a former British intelligence officer. The dossier, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded, «lacked rigor and transparency about the quality of the sourcing.»

Following the Mueller Report, the fifth and final volume of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian interference puts something of a lid on years of probes into the issue.

From this, there is a bipartisan consensus about the nature of the Russian threat. Both sides agree that the Russian government meddled in the 2016 election — and are calling for action to protect campaigns from foreign interference in future campaigns.