Ryan Goodman, Just Security‘s co-editor-in-chief, is testifying on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of its hearing on, “Election Interference: Ensuring Law Enforcement Is Equipped to Target Those Seeking to Do Harm.”
Goodman’s testimony includes a highly detailed account of the publicly available evidence to date about whether any Americans intentionally coordinated or conspired with the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 election. It also provides analysis on existing laws that apply to election interference, as well as opportunities for legislative reform to help prevent foreign threats to U.S. democracy in the future.
You can read his written testimony in full here.
Table of Contents
Part I: The Existing Legal System – p. 3
1. Conspiracy to defraud the United States – p. 3
2. Federal election law – p. 5
3. Foreign agents – p. 6
Part II: Recommendations for Legislative Reforms – p. 6
1. Expand enforcement authority – p. 7
2. Transparency – p. 7
3. Clarity and specification of criminal code – p. 8
4. Social media companies – p. 8
Appendix (or Part III): The 2016 Election and Campaign Interference–The Public Record – p. 9
Four Pre-Election Threads – p. 9
Thread 1. Trump World Tower Moscow – p. 9
Thread 2. Manafort-Gates links to Russia, pro-Russian Ukraine groups – p. 13
Thread 3. Russian agents’ direct overtures and offers of assistance to campaign – p. 17
● Russian agents and George Papadopoulos (April 2016) – p. 18
● Alexander Torshin via National Rifle Association and Donald Trump Jr. (May 2016) – p. 19
● Russian agents at Trump Tower meeting with top campaign officials (June 2016) – p. 21
● Carter Page and Moscow trip (July 2016) – p. 24
Thread 4. Weaponization of hacked information: Knowledge and support for Wikileaks – p. 26
● Roger Stone – p. 26
● Donald Trump Jr. and Wikileaks – p. 30
Four Post-Election Threads – p. 32
Thread 1. Follow up Trump Tower meeting – p. 32
Thread 2. Election interference sanctions – calls with Russian Ambassador – p. 32
Thread 3. Backchannel to Russia – p. 33
Thread 4. Post Jan. 20: Michael Flynn-led sanctions relief efforts – p. 37