FBI’s secrecy in Russia-Florida election hacking investigation angers lawmakers

In 2016, and likely also in 2018, the Russian government worked tirelessly to interfere with the American electoral process.

There’s no spin to be had about it, nor is there any claim whatsoever that this is “fake news”.  It happened, and that matters.

So, while lawmakers continues to huff and puff and fill the House of Representatives with hot air, the American people are demanding answers.  We must know how far Russia got, what they were trying to accomplish, and how to prevent this from occurring in 2020 – the most important election of our lifetime.  (But, aren’t they all?)

This week, Florida announced that they had been contacted by the FBI after the intelligence agency discovered that two counties in The Sunshine State had indeed been hacked by Russians during 2016.

Florida lawmakers suspected more information would be forthcoming from The Bureau.  Now, saddled with no such further explanation, these legislators are lashing out.

Members of Florida’s congressional delegation said Thursday it was unacceptable that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security will not publicly identify the two counties where Russian hackers gained access to voter databases before the 2016 election.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers said after a classified FBI briefing that they were told the names but were not allowed to share that information with the public. Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., had a similar briefing two days and also said afterward that he could not release the names.

Florida’s anger comes from the FBI’s unwillingness, even today, to further explain these intrusions, and the fact that much of the information that we have about the cyber attacks wasn’t known until after the Mueller report was made public.