The House Intelligence Committee is said to be investigating whether individuals affiliated with President Trump’s 2016 campaign received stolen voter data obtained by election hackers during last year’s race, according to multiple reports.
Members of the House panel are reportedly weighing whether any voter records stolen in a cyberattack suffered by the Illinois State Board of Elections last year were ultimately shared with Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, Time and CBS News both reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources.
The general counsel of the Illinois elections board, Ken Menzel, said about 90,000 voter records were compromised in the security breach year, the majority of which contained drivers license numbers and other sensitive data, Time reported Thursday.
Amid a broader probe focused on Russia’s involvement in last year’s race, congressional investigators are reportedly considering whether the Illinois breach is connected at all to Moscow or Mr. Trump’s campaign, the report said.
“If any campaign, Trump or otherwise, used inappropriate data the questions are, How did they get it? From whom? And with what level of knowledge?” Michael Bahar, the former top Democratic staffer on the House Intel Committee and currently a partner at Eversheds Sutherland, a London-based law firm, told Time. “That is a crux of the investigation.”
The U.S. intelligence community concluded months ago that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized state-sponsored hackers to infiltrate internet accounts affiliated with Mr. Trump’s former opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, in a bid to boost his 2016 White House campaign. Only recently, however, have federal officials acknowledged the scope of the operation: in a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official said Russian hackers targeted election systems in 21 states last year, but declined to discuss the degree of their success.
“A small number of networks were exploited — they made it through the door,” testified Dr. Sam Liles, acting director of the Cyber Division of DHS.
House investigators have found no evidence so far indicating stolen voter records were used by the Trump campaign, CBS reported Thursday.
Spokesmen for both the House and Senate Intel committees declined to comment on the stolen data, and Mr. Trump’s legal team ignored similar requests, according to Time’s report.
Separate from probes in the House and Senate, a special counsel appointed by the U.S. Justice Department is currently investigating whether anyone connected to Mr. Trump participated in Russia’s alleged election meddling. The Kremlin has denied hacking U.S. targets, and the White House rejected accusations of possible collusion.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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