Committees investigation into russias speaker feerns in the 2016. Senator burr said several parts of their investigation, including the question of collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia, remain open. The senators declined to give a time frame for when the committee could conclude its inquiry but they aim to release their findings by the end of this year. From capitol hill, this is about 40 minutes. They did say this was going to be a Progress Report of sorts on where they are, and. I think that gives you a little bit of a sense of the scope. Im going to sit down because they are approaching the door. 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 im glad to say that it doesnt seem to have a terrorism nexus. Thats not always the outcome. But our hearts and our prayers go out to all the individuals who were affected, both directly and indirectly. That from an Intelligence Committee standpoint and the agencies, theyre providing as many assets to local Law Enforcement that are tasked with the investigation of this unbelievable act. So were here to update you and the American People 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 an valuation of the Intelligence Communitys assessment. Additionally the investigation of the to look into any collusion by either campaign during the 2016 elections. The third piece was an assessments 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 250 plus hours of interviews. Almost 4,000 pages of transcripts. Almost 100,000 pages of documents reviewed by our staff and some by members. It includes highly classified intelligence reports. It includes emails, Campaign Documents and technical cyber analysis products. The committee has held open hearings this year that has touched on russias interference in u. S. Elections. Our staff has worked 11 hours a day since 23 of january six to seven days a week. Six to seven days a week. Excuse me. So far in the interview process we have interviewed everybody who had a hand or a voice in the creation of the Intelligence Community assessment. We have spent nine times the amount of time that the community spent putting the ica together, reviewing the ica 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 found appropriate for the ica itself but we may have found of relevance to our investigation. We have interviewed every official of the Obama Administration to fully understand what they saw, what cla clarity and transparency they had in the russia involvement and what they did or do not do. Again, im reminded we will come out with a finding at some point. Part of that hopefully will be recommendations as to changes we need to make. So 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 that choose to stake out when the next witness is coming, theres some that have 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 initial 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 them. One of those areas is the ica itself. Given that we have interviewed everybody who had a hand in the ica, i think there is general consensus among members and staff that we trust the conclusions of the ica. But we dont close our consideration of it in the unlikely hood that we find that 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 new and in most cases were interviewed for over two hours. The meeting at the mayflower. Let me be specific. These are not issues that have 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. But we understand that with a current investigation open there may be Additional Information we find that pulling that threat may give us some additional insight that we dont see today. Changes to the platform committee. Again, im addressing some things that have been written by you in this room and and we felt like we had to dig into this. Weve interviewed everybody involved in the drafting of the campaign platform. Complain staff was attempting to implement what they believed to be guidance, to be a strong ally in the ukraine but also leave the door open for better relations with russia. Im giving you the feedback we got from the individuals who were in the room 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. Again, this is not something that weve closed. But we have exhausted every person that we can talk toto 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 counselor by the justice department. Not the select committee of intelligence in the United States senate. There are concerns that we continue 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. Just to put in perspective, i said eve done over 100 interviews, over 250 hours. We currently have booked for the balance of this month 25 additional interviews. That may not end up being the toel 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 russia investigation. We have more work to do as it relates to collusion, but were developing a clear 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 for the 2018 election. Im going to ask the vice chairman to cover the other areas were in the process of pursuing. Thank you, richard. I want to say at the outset again, im 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. 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. As weve seen, for example, the stories that emerged in the late summer around, you know, mr. Trump juniors meeting or the possibilities of a trump tower in moscow. The chairman and i would love to find ways to close things down, but we also still see strains and threads that we need to continue to pursue. I want to touch on two subjects. The first is echoing what richards already said. The russian measure efforts did not end on election day, 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 concerns raised ini; germany. And we need to be on guard. One of the things that is particularly troubling to both of us is the fact that its become evident that 21 states Electoral Systems were not all penetrated, but there was at least there was at least trying to open the door in these 21 states. 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 we still dont know why exactly last friday was the date they chose to reveal that information, but still believe there needs to be a more aggressive whole of government approach in terms of protecting our electoral system. Remember, to make a change, even in a national election, doesnt require penetration in the 50 states arguably. States like chairman and mine could be key. You could get two or three states in two or three jurisdictions and all turn an election. I believe in a state like mine wherein virginia and new jersey, in 34 days, we have elections. Im glad to see the dhs has said they are 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 an arg niorganized, ag whole of government approach. In virginia, even before we discovered we were one of the 21 states, i think the states electoral board in caution decertified one set of machines that were touch screens that didnt have kind of a paper ballot or a paper trail to this. One of the things we wanted to emphasize with this briefing 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 around ongoing challenge. Again, id 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. That is the russians use of social media platforms, that 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 realm of political advertising, weve seen an over 700 increase in the use of digital political advertising between 2012 and ex 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. They have provided us with information. We think its important that the three companies that weve 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 that is trending and becoming more popular, whether that trending is because of a series of americans are liking that story or liking that either page or generated by real individuals or whether thats generated by bots or in some cases it may be false identity, falsely identified accounts, for example facebook has indicated between 30,000 and 50,000 such were taken down in france due to russian interference. Third, just the notion that both of us have been in politics a long time. If you have somebody running an ad for you or against you, you ought to be able to go down and take at least a look at that content the same way that if ads are run for or against you on tv or radio or news print, you at least get a look at that content. This is an ongoing process but were seeing increasing levels of cooperation and with that ill turn it back over to the chairman to take questions. Let me just say many of you have asked us if were 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 they 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 the 25th we will have another opening hearing with michael cohen. On november 1st we have invited the social Media Companies that mark mentioned to be our guest at an open hearing. We, too, are confident they will take us up on it. As it relates to the steel dossier, unfortunately the committee has hit a wall. We have on several occasions made attempts to contact mr. Steel to meet with mr. Steel, to include personally the vice chairman and myself as two individuals making that connection. Those offers have gone unaccept unaccepted. The committee can not really decide without understanding 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 have the key to june of 16. My hope is that mr. Steel will make a decision to meet with either mark and i or the committee or both so that we can hear his side of it versus for us to depict in our findings what his intent or what his actions were. And i say that to you but i also say it to chris steel. 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, in fact, you turn down the private offer. The committee has proven to be balanced, professional, and it will willing to listen to everybody. Let me say in closing, those following our investigation in the press, i want you to know that you only see glimpses of the amount of work the committees 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 pressuofessional s to do this investigation and not to the talking heads all around the country that suggested we couldnt do this unless we went out and hired a whole new group. And i think the numbers here reflect that. Ultimately, we look forward to completing our work. And presenting our findings to the public. I cant set a date as to when that will be. Mark cant set a date as to when that can 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 that theres been value to everybody we met with. But if we hadnt met with them, then you would have questioned us as to why we didnt. Now, the truth is nobody in this room, and mark and i might be included, none of us in this room may know everybody weve met with. Were not going to share who we interview. Were not going to share what we ask and were assuredly not going to share what they tell us. Were not going to share wu tit you the documents that we got, but when you receive 100,000, a large of that coming from the Trump Campaign alone, 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 able to a accumulate. So with that ill be happy to open up questions. Have you seen any evidence between these russian facebook ads with the Trump Campaign or with any Political Campaign . We havent even had our hearing with any of the social media platforms. I think if you look from 10,000 feet, the subject matter of the ads was seems to have been to create chaos in every group that they could possibly 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 weve completed the investigation. I believe and i think you will see that there will be more forensics done by these companies. Again, when we just look at scale, france versus the United States in one of the platforms, facebook in terms of what happened, i think theyve got some more work to do and im pleased to say i think they are out doing that work now. The president said repeatedly that any talk of collusion is a hoax. Youve gone through all the documents. Youve interviewed all these people. At this point is the president right . Is this a hoax . Im going to let you guys quote the president and ask questions about what he says. Its not going to be the committee. Do you have any evidence to rule out that the president knew anything about any of these contacts that occurred between any of his associates and the russians . Let me go back and say because i thought i was pretty clear the issue of collusion is still open. That 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. You say that the issue of collusion is still open. Are you pursuing the question of whether theres a link between the ads that appeared on social media sites and the Trump Campaign . Let me just say that, ill let mark address it if hed like to, if there was any connection, that would be pertinent to our investigation of 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. We have to get the universe first. I was concerned on the front end that the first path was not a for example, i cited the fact that one entity, the only ads that were produced were those that were paid for in rubles. Obviously there are various forms of payment. I think the companies are increasingly understanding that their actions need to match their public statements that they realize how important it is to maintain the integrity of our democratic process. [ inaudible question ] i think at the end of the day its important that the public see these ads. You talked about the level of cooperation that youve gotten from Obama Administration officials. Can you characterize the level of cooperation youve seen from Trump Campaign officials and those in the trump orbit . I cant think of a Trump Campaign official that we have asked to come in that has not that has not come in. Theres some individuals that may have been involved in the Trump Campaign that to this point we might have limited the scope of our questions, but with the full intent of them coming back when we are a little bit more mindful of a few intelligence threats. When you compare what they said to you to the documents that you reviewed, do you fine that theyve been truthful . I dont think that i think our interviews to this point outside of the five specific areas of buckets that we knew exactly what the universe people wanted to talk to, we knew what they were trying to find out, that were very much in an explore to explore tory mode trying to piece together what people did, who they talked to. In most cases we have accessed email records, text messages, phone records voluntarily. Usually when you get Something Like that voluntarily, somebodys probably going to tell you the truth when they answer the questions but the reason we cant answer some of your question system we will take everything that our staff has put into transcripts and we will test that against every piece of intelligence and other interviews that weve done. To suggest if wed done that to everybody thoroughly would be misleading you. So let us go through that process. But i will assure you that if somebody has come in and not been truthful with us, we will catch them on that and they will come back and that will be the subject of great intent. Questions for both of you. Based on the work done so far, whats your assessment of what the russians did do in 2016, what theyre doing now, and what they intend for the future. Ill just say, and if there is large instances that they hacked into political files, release those files, an effort to influence the election. We think they actively tried to at least test the vulnerabilities of 21 states Electoral Systems and we feel that they used the social media firms both in terms of paid advertising and what i believe is more problematic have created false accounts and others that would drive interest towards stories or groups. And generally those stories and groups were to sell chaos and drive dwuivision in our country. I think the pattern they used in america they abused in other nations around the world and i fear sometimes if you add up all theyve spent that was a decent rate of return for them. Let me add, too, if i can. We can certifiable say that no vote totals were affected. That the tallies are accurate. The outcome of the election based upon the count of votes, they did not in any way, shape, or form that weve been able to find alter that. I want to reiterate something that 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 that we saw in montenegro and france and belgium in the United States will continue to be tested within our structure of the election process here at home. To that point, you just noted that facebook, they say 10 Million People saw their ad, there was an Information Campaign reached against one candidate by the russians, and of course they probed 21 states, perhaps more than we didnt catch. So can you definitively look at the american public, saerenator burr and say that the election was not influenced by this massive operation . Well, let me take issue with your premise of your question. Neither mark or i said that there was a campaign targeted against one. Were looking at both campaigns. Well, thats what the ica has said. The ica did not look at collusion of the kpaps. The ica looked at russian let me finish. Russian involvement in the election process. Were in agreement with that. We have not come to any determination on collusion or russias references f. If we use 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 inchris krim nat. One of the things thats most challenging to this investigate is with the exception of certain pieces that have already been discussed, it seems that overall theme of the russian involvement in the u. S. Election creates chaos at every level. And i would tell you the fact that were sitting here nine months later investigating it, they have been pretty darn successful. Patrolman burr, how will you rate the administration and the countrys response in terms of preventing Something Like this happening in the future and how ready are we for virginias election and 2018 . What more needs to be done . Ill let mark address virginia. Let me just say this. Our role is not to necessarily suggest here are the 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 a 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 has a security clearance to be briefed on election issues. We couldnt say secretary of state because thats not the case in every 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 would put a statue out there no being notified. Weve made some steps in the right direction. If we see things that we think is appropriate for us to do, we will do them. If we see its not appropriate for us to do, we will hopefully convey that in a way that presents a road map. Is the administration paying a close enough attention to this to i appreciate what you just said. I think youre putting this impetus in our intel bill. It would seem very strange to me that there was an excuse being given we cant tell a top election official because he or she may not have a high enough clearance. Im glad to see as of last friday dhs has changed that position. I do believe we need more, and this is i would say that this administration or any administration, a whole of government approach about protecting our electoral system, but we need a whole of government approach for that matter, maybe a whole Society Approach in terms of our sieb ber vulnerabilities across the board. I came from a meeting that the Equifax Breach was most of our private personal Financial Information may be in the hands now of rogue elements, that there wasnt appropriate Cyber Protection there. This is that this is why i characterized some of this as the wild, wild rest. This whole realm in cyber, we all need to step up our game. Has the russian lawyer who well go right here. Do you think that this report your conclusion needs to help before the 2018 election in order to warn people about what can happen next and where do you think the most work needs to be done . Im going to set an artificial deadline, but i think mark and i would agree, weve got to make our facts as it relates to russias involvement in our election public prior to the primaries Getting Started in 2018 which means sometime the first of the year. Its still my aspriirational go to finish by the calendar year. I dont think thats changed. When we started nine months ago i saw three buckets and today i talked about five or six. So i didnt dream then what it would expand to or predict what witnesses are going to share with us that might lead us in a different direction. One of the things, again, i think that the committee has been very good at it were going to follow the facts. And we want to do it as quickly as possible but we want to do it right and follow the facts. Is the russian attorney that met with donald trump jr. , hes offered to come in open committee. Have you reached out to her . How do you know we didnt already . I didnt say you did. Thank you. This is a question for both of you. Is there any progress forward on creating legislation that would create new rules for regulating how political advertising works in these platforms that republicans have discussed with democrats . I know you and were working on something and that would i believe be the lightest touch possible. And that light touch would focus on making sure that foreign paid for advertising doesnt penetrate our political system. And that there was an ability to at least look at the content that appears in Political Campaigns the same way that similar to the rules that the rest of the media already have. I want to make sure we get and were hoping to finish that draft in the coming days. I can assure that one of the first people i want to share that with is my chairman because this ought to be an area where i think there would be broad bipartisan con ssensus. In my hope at least from the comments of some of the companies, ive heard at least comments that they are open to this type of disclosure. Let me just state fact today. It is illegal today for foreign money to find its way into u. S. Elections. So its not like weve got to rewrite some laws. I just want to get clarification on this. So so far you have not been able to verify the Intelligence Community assessment that russia was waitieighting on the side o donald trump . We fell confident that the accuracy is going to be supported by our committee. Were not willing to close the issue given the nature of the rest of the investigation that we might get a thread of intelligence that suggests possibly an area of the ica that we that our interpretation is different. Were leaving it open. Its not closed. I think any smart investigation would stay open until weve completed. Thats again were trying to be very careful here, as richard mentioned some of these meetings where weve talked to most folks. We also know it has to be talked about all of the balance of the committee members. Were being extra cautious here saying were not reaching final conclusions until weve had all those conversations. Will there ever be a point where meddling by russia was so overwhelming that it could lead to results of the election . All i can tell you is that the votes were counted. One person won. Thats how its going to stay. Prior to the release of your committees report, will there be any coordination on what your Senate Judiciary committee has found in its own investigation . Were focused on our investigation. Everybody has their jurisdictional realms. My hope is they stay within those lanes. We talk, i wont say regularly, but when we need to with the special counsel, the special counsel was focused on criminal acts. Were not focused on criminal acts. If we find one, then theyre the first phone call we make. Senator burr, the president and commander in chief is charged with protecting the country. He hasnt really spoken out on this issue other than to call it a hoax. Do you want to see him lead some kind of effort to speak out to something tangible to protect the country from these what you consider to be ongoing attacks from russia . Listen, i think the vice chairman believes it was slow getting dhs to recognize this. It didnt take as long as it did for the last administration to run the clock on it. So were not trying to look back and point to things that were done wrong. Everybodys done things wrong. Im talking about should the president now take what youre saying today, speak out against it and lead some kind of formal effort to protect the country . Im not asking the president to take the briefing that we did at a press briefing about progress and assume that in any way, shape, or form fully encapsulates what our final report will say. What i will say is what the vase chi chairman pointed out. The department of Homeland Security has accepted a different posture. Its his administration. Im sure they have his direction or his leaderships direction and were pleased with the progress that theyre making. That some of the things that hopefully we will be able to point out would be important steps to be incorporated in their thought process moving forward. Thank you, guys. Weve got to run. And were live now at the Senate Budget committee is meeting today to consider their budget resolution for fiscal year 2018. It aims to cut spending by nearly 5 trillion over a decade. Also taking into account the tax reform package that the Senate Finance committee is currently working on. Live coverage here on