The former chair of the Democratic National Committee said Wednesday that the FBI never contacted her after Russian hackers breached the DNC’s computer networks prior to last year’s presidential race.
“At no point during my tenure at the DNC did anyone from the FBI or any other government agency contact or communicate with me about Russian intrusion on the DNC network,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement Wednesday.
“It is astounding to me that the chair of an organization like the DNC was never contacted by the FBI or any other agency concerned about these intrusions,” the Florida Democrat added, Politico reported. “As a member of Congress, I had the unique clearance to hear any classified briefing that would be involved in such an intrusion, and the FBI clearly should have come to me with that information. They did not.”
The former DNC chairwoman’s remarks came within hours of a Wednesday morning congressional hearing during which former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson testified about the DNC breach and other offensive cyber activities attributed to Russian state-sponsored hackers.
“My interest in helping them was definitely of nonpartisan interest, and I recall very clearly that I was not pleased that we were not in there helping them patch this vulnerability,” Mr. Johnson said of the DNC.
“If the FBI or any other government agency ever came to me with that information, I would have gladly welcomed their help,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz responded afterwards. “In fact, back in March, former FBI Director [James] Comey testified that he wished he had personally done more to notify the DNC of the Russian intrusion.”
President Trump opined on the topic from his Twitter account early Thursday, tweeting: “Why did the DNC REFUSE to turn over its Server to the FBI, and still hasn’t? It’s all a big Dem scam and excuse for losing the election!”
Ms. Wasserman Schultz resigned from her role as chairwoman last July after WikiLeaks published internal Democratic Party correspondence obtained during the DNC breach, including emails in which she expressed a bias against Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent and former White House hopeful, in favor of the party’s eventual candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Her interim replacement, Donna Brazile, was fired from her role as CNN contributor three months later after those same emails showed that she shared debate questions with Mrs. Clinton ahead of CNN-sponsored campaign events.
The U.S. intelligence community has attributed the DNC breach and other related intrusions to a state-sponsored influence campaign targeting last year’s White House race allegedly ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to benefit Mr. Trump’s campaign. Moscow has denied the accusations.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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