Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Monday voiced support for a request from some members of the Electoral College to receive an intelligence briefing on Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.
“The bipartisan electors’ letter raises very grave issues involving our national security,” Clinton campaign manager John Podesta said in a statement obtained by Politico. “Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed.”
“Each day that month, our campaign decried the interference of Russia in our campaign and its evident goal of hurting our campaign to aid Donald Trump,” he continued. “Despite our protestations, this matter did not receive the attention it deserved by the media in the campaign. We now know that the CIA has determined Russia’s interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. This should distress every American.”
Over the weekend, several bombshell reports dropped about actors with close ties to the Kremlin hacking and selectively leaking information in order to harm Clinton’s campaign and aid Trump. As a result of that reporting, 10 electors published an open letter Monday on Medium asking Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for a briefing on the intelligence community’s findings ahead of the Dec. 19 meeting in which they are expected to select the next president.
“The Electors require to know from the intelligence community whether there are ongoing investigations into ties between Donald Trump, his campaign or associates, and Russian government interference in the election, the scope of those investigations, how far those investigations may have reached, and who was involved in those investigations,” a group of nine Democratic electors and one Republican elector wrote.
They include Christine Pelosi, daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Michael Baca, a Colorado elector who is spearheading an effort to convince other members of the Electoral College not to vote for Trump. Trump critic Chris Suprun, an emergency responder from Texas, is the lone Republican elector who signed onto the letter.
