Time frame for when the committee would conclude its inquiry but aim to release findings before the end they have year. This is 40 minutes. Hello. How is everybody today. Thank you for being here. Its a busy day around the country. Mark and i recognize the tragedy of nevada this week and at this point am glad to say it doesnt seem to have a terrorism nexus. Thats not always the outcome but our hearts and prayers go out to all the individuals who were affected both directly and indirectly and can assure you that from an Intelligence Committee standpoint and the agencies, theyre providing as many assets to local Law Enforcement an to those people that are tasked with investigation of this unbelievable act. Senator burr were here to update you about the investigation into russias meddling in the 2016 election. When we started this investigation on 23 january of this year, we had a very clear focus. We were focused on the evaluation of the i. C. A. , the Intelligence Community assessment, of russias involvement in our 2016 election. Additionally, the investigation was to look into any collusion by either campaign during the 2016 elections. The third piece was an assessment of the ongoing russian active measures including information and influence campaigns that may still exist and may be ongoing. The investigation started with those three buckets of interest. Now were over 100 interviews later, which translates to 250plus hours of interviews. Almost 4,000,000 pages of transcripts. Almost 4,000 pages of transcripts. Thousands of pages of review by staff and members. It encludes highly classified intelligence recording. It includes Campaign Documents and technical cyber analysis products. We have had 11 open hearings this calendar year that touvend russias interference in u. S. Elections. I can say that our dedicated russia investigative staff have literally worked six to seven hours a day since 23 january to get us to the point we are today. Six or seven days a week. So far in the interview process we have interviewed everybody who had a hand or a voice in the into the creation of the Intelligence Community assessment. We have spent nine times the amount of time that the community spent putting the i. C. A. Together, reviewing the i. C. A. And reviewing all the supporting documents that went in it but in addition to that, the things that were thrown on the cutting room floor that they might not have been sr. Found appropriate for the i. C. A. Itself, but we may have found of elevance to our investigation. With wf interviewed every official of the Obama Administration to fully understand what they saw, what clarity and transparency they had into russian involvement and more importantly what they did or did not do an what drove those actions. Again, reminder that we will come out with a finding at some point. Part of that hopefully will be recommendations as to changes we need to make. Weve tried to think as thoroughly through this as we can. We have interviewed literally individuals from around the world. So for those of you who choose to stake out when the next witness is come, there are some that snuck through because you dont know who they are. Now, its safe to say that the inquiry has expanded slightly. Initial interviews and document review generated hundreds of additional requests on our part for information. It identified many leads that expanded our national inquiry. The volume of work done by the staff has prepared the committee to look at some areas of our investigation that we hope will very soon reach some definite conclusion, but were not there yet. Were not ready to close it. One of those areas is the i. C. A. Itself. Given that weve interviewed everybody who had a hand in the i. C. A. , i think there is general consensus among members and staff that we trust the conclusions of the i. C. A. But we dont close our consideration of it. In the unlikely event we find Additional Information through the completion of our investigation. The Obama Administrations response to russian interference, as i said, we have interviewed every person within the administration. They have volunteered and they have been unbelievably cooperative to come in and share everything they knew and in most cases were interviewed for over two hours. The meeting at the mayflower. Let me be specific. These are not issues that are closed. We have not come to any final conclusions. We have interviewed seven individuals that attended the mayflower event. The testimony from all seven were consistent with each other. We understand that with a current investigation open there may be Additional Information we find that pulling that thread may give us additional insight we dont see today. Changes we understand that with committee and again im addressing some things that have been written by you in this room have been on ot our chart but we felt we had to dig deeply into them. We have the Committee Staff has interviewed every person involved in the drafting of the our chart campaign platform. Campaign staff was attempting to implement what they believed uld be guidance to be strong to be a strong ally of the ukraine but also leave the door open for better relations with russia. Im giving you the feedback we got from individuals who were in the room to be a making the decision. Again, not closed, open for the continuation. The last one i want to cover is the comey memos. This topic has been hotly debated. And the committee is satisfied that our involvement with this issue has reached a logical end as it relates to the russia investigation. Now again, this is not something that we closed. But we have exhausted every person we can talk to and get information thats pertinent to us relative to the russia investigation. Questions that you might have surrounding comeys firing are better answered by the general counsel or by the justice department. Not the select committee of intelligence in the United States senate. There are concerns that we ontinue to pursue. Collusion. The committee continues to look into all evidence to see if there was any hint of collusion. Now, im not going to even discuss initial findings because we havent any. Weve got a tremendous amount of documents still to go through and just to put in perspective, i said weve done over 100 interview, over 250 hours, we currently have booked for the balance of this month 25 additional interviews. That may not end up being the total but as of today there are 25 individuals booked to meet with our staff before the end of this month alone. Pertaining to the russian investigation. We have more work to do as it relates to collusion but were developing a clearer picture of what happened. What i will confirm is that the Russian Intelligence Service is determined, clever, and i recommend that every campaign and every election official take this very seriously as we move into this novembers election and as we move into preparation election. 18 im going to ask the vice chairman to cover the other areas that were in the process of pursuing. Thank you, richard. I want to say at election. Im going to the outset again, i am very proud of this committee. Im proud of the way the committee has acted. Im proud of our staff and the enormous amount of work theyve done. Senator warner i know the chairman and i see many of you daily in the hallways. And know that this feels like its taking a long time. It is taking a long time. But getting it right and getting all the facts is what we owe the American People. For example, n, stories that emerged in the late summer around mr. Trump jr. s meeting or what for example, pof love tower deal, we would to find a way to chose things down but we still see threads that we need to continue to pursue. I want to talk touch on two subjects. The first is echoing what richard has already said. The russian active measures efforts did not end on election ay 2016. They were not only geared at the United States of america. We have seen russian active measures take place in france. Weve seen concerns raised in the netherlands. Weve seen concerned raised in germany. We need to be on guard. One of the things that is particularly troubling to both theres he fact that we need evidence of 21 states electoral penetrate not all bud there was at least there was at least trying to open the door in these 21 states. Penetr bud it has been very disappointing to me and i believe the chairman as well that it took 11 months for the department of Homeland Security to reveal those 21 states. And still dont know why exactly last friday was the date they chose to reveal that information but there needs to be a more aggressively whole of government approach in terms of protecting our electoral system. Remember, to make a change, even in the national election, doesnt require penetration in the 50 states. Arguably in states like the chairmans and mine, you could pick two or three states, two or three jurisdictions and alter an election. And i believe in a state like mine where in virginia, new jersey, 34 days, we have elections. Im glad to see that d. H. S. Has said theyre going to up their game and particularly help those states with elections that are happening this year. But we need to make sure that there is a an organized whole of government approach. In virginia, in virginia, for , even before we certified one set of machines that were touch screens that didnt have, kind of, a paper ballot or paper trail to it. One of the things we wanted to emphasize with this brief that this is an ongoing concern and that if states dont proactively move forward, very shortly well be getting into primary seasons, early on in 2018. This is an ongoing challenge. Again, i point out even after last week, wisconsin, texas and california still have some lack of clarity about whether the appropriate individuals were notified. I also want to raise an issue that the chairman and i have been working jointly on as well. That is the russians use of social media platforms. Social media platforms that increasingly the vast majority of us turn to for information, for news, in a way that is very different. If you look, for example, in the well. Of political advertising, weve seen an over700 increase in the use of digital political advertising between 2012 and 2016. The expectation is that may double or triple again in terms of the next election cycle because of the ability to target voters. I was concerned at first that some of these social media Platform Companies did not take this threat seriously enough. I believe they are recognizing that threat. Now theyve provided us with information. We think its important that the three companies we have invited, google, twitter, and facebook, will appear in a public hearing so that americans can again hear both about how were going to protect, i would argue three areas, one, making sure that if you see an ad, it appears on a social media site, that americans can know whether the source of that ad was generated by foreign entities. Two, to make sure that if you see a story thats trending, become manager popular, whether that trending is because a series of americans are liking that story or liking that page, whether thats generated by real individuals or by botts or in some cases by bots or in some cases it may be false identity, falsely identified accounts. Facebook indicated between 30,000 and 50,000 such accounts for taken down in france because due to russian interference. Third, just the notion that both of us have been in politics for a long time. If you have somebody running an ad for you, against you, you ought to be able to go down and take a look at that content the same way that if ads are run for tv, inst you on radio or you can look at that were seeing increasing levels of cooperation. With that, i turn it back over to the chairman for questions. Senator burr many of you asked us, are we tv, you can going to release the facebook ads. We dont release documents provided to our committee. Period. Let me say it again. The senate Intelligence Committee does not release documents provided by witnesses, companies, whoever whatever the classification, its not a practice that were going to get into. Clearly if any of the social media platforms would like to do that, were fine with them doing it. Because weve already got scheduled an open hearing because we believe the American People deserve to hear firsthand. And just to remind people, on october 25, well have another open hearing with michael cohen. On november 1, we have invited the social Media Companies that mark mentioned to be our guests an open hearing. And we feel confident that they will take us up on that. S it relates to the an open do, unfortunately, the committee has it a wall. We have on several occasions out to empts to reach mr. Steel, to reach out to mr. Steel, to include myself and the ce chairman making the communication as individuals. Those offers have gone unaccepted. The committee cannot really decide the credibility out to o dossier without understanding things like, who paid for it . Who are your sources and subsources . Were investigating a very expansive Russian Network of interference in u. S. Elections. And though we have been incredibly enlightened at our ability to rebuild backwards the steel dossier up to a certain date, getting past that point has been somewhat impossible. And i say this because i dont think were going to find any intelligence products that prejune of y to 2016. Hi my hope is mr. Steele would make a decision to meet with committee, or the both so we can hear his side of it, fer us is versus us trying to decide in our find whags his intent or actions were. I say that to you committee, ory it to chris steele. Potential witnesses that we might ask to come in in the future, i strongly suggest that you come in and speak with us. If we believe that you have something valuable to bring to the committee if you dont voluntarily do it, i will assure you today you will be compelled to do it. I can compel you to come, i cant compel you to talk but that will be done in a very public way if you tush down the private offer. The committee has proven to be professional and it and willing to listen. Those following professional an investigation in the press, i want you to know that you only see glimpses of the amount of work the committee has done. Were doing much of our work behind closed doors to ensure the privacy and the protection of witnesses and sensitive sources and methods. Its become increasingly clear that the committee has stayed focused on building the foundation to be able to finish our investigation thoroughly and in an accountable way. Im confident today that when we started, we chose wisely by choosing our professional staff to do this investigation and not talking heads all around the country that suggest wed couldnt do this unless we went out and hired a whole new group. I think the numbers here reflect that. Talking heads all ultimately, we look forward to completing our work and findings to the public. I cant set a date as to when that will be. Mark cant set a date as to when that will be. We will share with you when we have exhausted every thread of intelligence, every potential witness that can contribute anything to this. I dont by any stretch of the imagination tell you theres been value to everybody we have met with. But if we hadnt met with them, then you would have questioned us as to why we didnt. The truth is, nobody in this room, and mark and i may be included in this, none of nuss this room may know everybody we met with. Were not going to share everybody we interviewed, were not going to share we what we asked or what they told us. Were not going to share the documents we got. But when you receive 100,000 documents plus a lot a large group of that from the Trump Campaign alone, when you look at the countrys most sensitive intelligence products, let me assure you were going to get the best view of what happened that anybody could possibly get. At the end of this process, we will be sure that we present to the American People our findings as best we have been table accumulate them. With that, id be happy to open up for questions. Have you seen any evidence between the russian facebook ads or with the Trump Campaign or any other campaign . Senator burr we havent had meet wgs social media platforms. If you look from 10,000 feet, the subject matter of the ads seems to have been to create chaos in every group they possibly could identify in america. From a standpoint of any involvement. Let us have the opportunity to have these folks in, ask them the questions, in many cases they didnt even take advantage of some of the most technical targeting tools that exist within those social Media Companies. So i would defer answering your question until we concluded the investigation. I believe and senator warner i believe and i think youll see that there will be more forensics done by these companies. Again, when you look at scale, facebook in terms of what happened, i think theyve got some more work to do. Im pleased to say i think they are out doing that work now. Reporter the president said repeatedly that any talk of collusion is a hoax. Youve gone through all these documents, interviewed all these people. At this point, is the president hoax . S this a senator burr im going to let you guys quote the president and ask him questions, its not going to be the committee. Reporter is there hoax . Senator burr im any suggestion that the president knew anything about the contacts between his associates and the russians . Senator burr i thought i was pretty clear. The issue of collusion is still open. We continue to investigate both intelligence and witnesses. And that were not in a position where we will come to any type of temporary finding on that until weve completed the process. Thank you. Reporter you say the issue of collusion is still open are you pursuing the question of whether theres a link between the ads appeared on social media sites and the Trump Campaign . Senator burr let me just say, ill let mark address it if hed like appeared on to, if there w connection that would be part of our investigation into russias influence in the elections. We have had incredible access and cooperation by those social Media Companies that have been in some of them have been interviewed twice. At the end of the day, well be prepared to ask the right questions that may answer some of your questions at that open hearing. Get r warner we have to the universe first, i was concerned on the front end the first pass was not a thorough enough pass. Were he only ads produced those paid for in rubbles. Obviously there are various forms of payment. I think the companies are increasingly understanding that need to match their public statements that they realize how important it is to maintain the integrity of our emocratic process. Need to math reporter [inaudible] senator warner at the end of the day i think its important the public see these ads. Reporter you talked about the level of cooperation from the Obama Administration officials. Can you talk about the level of cooperation from Trump Officials or Campaign Officials . Senator burr i cannot think of a trump official we have asked to come in who has not come in. There are some officials who may have been involved in the Trump Campaign that to this point we may have limited the scope of our questions but with the full intent of them coming back when we knew a little bit more. Reporter when you compare what they said to you to the documents you have, have they truthful, by and large . Senator burr i think our ver our interviews to this point, outside of the five specific areas of truthful, by buckets t exactly what we wanted to talk to, what we were trying to find out, were very much in exploratory mode, trying to piece together what people did, where they were, who they talked to. In most cases we have accessed email records, text messages, phone records, voluntarily. Usually when you get somebody like that voluntarily, somebody is probably going to tell you the truth when they answer the questions. The reason we cant definitively answer some of your questions today is we will take everything that our staff has put in the transcripts an test that against every piece of intelligence and other interviews that we have done. We have done that to suggest done that to everybody thoroughly would be misleading. Let us go through that process. If somebody has come in and not been truthful with us, we will catch them on that and done tha come back and that will be the subject of great intensity. Reporter a question for both of you. Based on work done so far, what your assessment of the russians what the russians did do in 2016 what theyre doing now, and what the otential is . Senator warner they hacked into political files, released those files in an effort to influence the election. E think they actively tried to at least test the vulnerabilities of 21 states electoral systems. And we feel that they used social media firms, both in terms of paid advertising and what i believe is more false atic, would create accounts and others that would drive interest toward stories or groups and generally those tories or groups were to sow chaos and drive division in our country. I think the pattern they used in america, they have used in other nations around the world and i all sometimes if you add up that, it was a decent rate of return. Senator burr we can certifiably say no vote totals were affected. The tallies are accurate. The outcome of the election based on the count of the vote, they did not in any way, shape, or form that weve been able to find alter that. I want to reiterate something mark said. You cant walk away from this and believe that russia is not currently active in trying to create chaos in our election process. I assume that the same tactics we saw in montenegro and in frant and in belgium and in the United States will continue to be tested within our structure of the election process here at home. Reporter pivoting off that point you noted that facebook, they say 10 Million People saw their ad. There was an Information Campaign waged against one candidate by the russians. And of course they probe 2d1 states, perhaps more we didnt catch. So can you definitively look at the american public, senator burr, and say that the election was not influenced in any way by this massive russian operation . Senator burr let me take a few of the premise of your question. Neither mark or i said there was a campaign targeted against one. Were looking at both campaigns. Porter well thats what the i. C. A. Said. Senator burr the i. C. A. Did not look at collusion of campaigns. The i. C. A. Looked at russian involvement in the election process. Were in agreement with that. We have not come to any determination on collusion or russias preferences. If we used solely the social Media Advertising that we have seen, theres no way you can look at that and say that was to help the right side of the ideological chart and not the left. Or vice versa. They were indiscriminate. One of the thing thats most challenging to this investigation is with the exception of certain pieces that it already been discussed seems that overall theme of the russian involvement in the u. S. Election was to create chaos at every level. And i would tell you the fact that were sitting here nine later, investigating it, reporter how ready are we for virginias election in 2018 . What more needs to be done . Senator burr ill let mark address virginia. But let me say this. R role is not to necessarily suggest here are things we need to do. Our investigation should create a road map for committees of the proper jurisdiction to follow, for states to follow. Mark and i made the decision to take the initiative in our authorization bill that we require, in our authorization bill that there be a designated person in every state who that is the security clearance to be breefed on election issues. We couldnt say secretary of state because thats not the case never state but we felt compelled with what we had learned to make sure that just the fact that somebody wasnt cleared at a high enough level, there not state out being see that its not appropriate for us to to, we will hopefully convey that in a way that presents a road map for somebody else. Reporter are you there not being notified. We have made some steps in the right direction. As we see things that we think its appropriate for us to do, well do. If we satisfied that the administration is paying close enough attention . Senator warner it seemed very strange to me that somehow there was an excuse being given, we cant tell top Election Officials because he or she may not have high enough clearance. Im glad to see as of last friday d. H. S. Changed that position. I do believe we need more. This is, i would say that this or or any istration administration a whole of government for that matter, a approach in approach in terms of cyberas a rule erblet vulnerabilities vulnerabilities around the board. We had a meeting this morning that came to the consensus prive and personal Financial Information maybe in the hands now of rogue elements that there was not appropriate fabric protections there. Some of this is while blob west, this whole realm in cyber, we need to step up our game. Reporter the russian lawyer who has gone to trump has she just you need do you think to warn people about what can happen next and what he think is almost work than is to be done . Senator burr i think mark and i would agree, we have got to make ts, as a relates to russias involvement in our election, public, prior to the primaries Getting Started in 2018, which means sometime the first of the year. It is still my aspirational goal. O continue the investigation when we started nine months ago, i saw three buckets and today i talked about five or six. I did not dream then what would it span two. Anything that witnesses will share with us that will lead us in a different direction. One of the things the committee is good at is we are going to follow the facts. We want to do it as quickly as possible, but we want to do it right and follow the facts. Reporter the russian attorney through i do not say you did, i am asking. This is a question for both of you, is there any progress for creating legislation that would create new rules for regulating advertising on these platforms that republicans have discussed . Senator burr we are working on something and i think it would possible. Htest touch that light touch with focus on foreign paperat advertising does not penetrate our political system. And that there is a ability to at least look at the content that appears in political campaigns the same way similar to the rules that the rest of the media already have. Use thatke sure draft in the coming days. One of the first people i want to share that with is my this ought tose be an area where i think and my hope come a lease from some of the comments from some of the this ought to be an area where icompanies, i t they are open to this type of exclusion. Senator warner senator burr it is illegal for foreign money to find its way into u. S. Elections. It is not like we have to rewrite some laws. Reporter i just want to get clarification on this, so far you have not been able to verify the intelligent communities assessment that russia was weighing in on the side of trump . Senator burr we focus we feel very confident that the icas accuracy will be supported by our committee. We are not going to close the investigation given the nature of the rest of the investigation. We make it a threat of intelligence that suggests, possibly an area of the ica that our interpretation is different. We are leaving it open, it is not closed. I think any smart investigation would stay open. The reason were trying to be very careful is is careful is we are being extra cautious thing we are not reaching final conclusions and so we have those conversations. Will there ever be a point that the meddling from russias could lead to senator burr all i can tell you , one person one and that is how it is going to stay. Reporter prior to the release of your report, will that be any communication i what your Judiciary Committee has found . Onator burr we are focused our investigation, everybody has their jurisdictional needs. My hope is that they stay within those lanes. Regularly,wont say but well we need to we type of the special counsel, which is focused on criminal acts. We are not focused on criminal acts. President is charged with but he has not spoken out on this issue. Outou want to see him speak and do something touchable something tangible to protect the country from the ongoing attacks from russia . They willrr i think slow getting dhs to recognize this. If he did not take as long as it did for the last administration to run the clock on it. We are not trying to look back and point the fingers point to things that were going on. Everybody has done things wrong. President should the now take what you are seeing today, speak out against it and lead some formal effort to protect senator burr the briefing that we give at press briefings about progress and assume that that is in any way shape or form encapsulating what our final report will say. Say, what the vice chairman pointed out. The department of Homeland Security has taken a different posture. It is his administration. Im sure they had his direction or his leaderships direction, we are pleased with the progress. Would behe things important steps to be incorporated in the process moving forward. Thank you guys. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] tonight on cspan, President Trump visits First Responders in las vegas, nevada. House democrats comments on the las vegas shoot in thing gun buys. Live coverage as the houses they continue work on the 2018 budget. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news on policy issues that impact you. Coming up thursday morning, we are live in frankfurt, kentucky for the next stop on the cspan bus 50 capitals tour. Kentucky senator president and kentucky secretary of state will be our guests, discussing their states issues and the security of voting systems. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern thursday morning. Join the discussion. Today, President Trump travel to las vegas where he met with local officials, Las Vegas Police and the staff at a local hospital that treated many of the shooting victims. In addition to the president , we hear from nevada governor brian sandoval. President trump i just have to tell you that i just met some of the most amazing