Letter to Director Coats and Secretary Nielsen - Leading Democrats in Calling for Action on Russian Election Efforts in 2018

Letter

Dear Director Coats and Secretary Nielsen:

In order to help protect against foreign interference in the 2018 elections, we write to request that you work together and with others in the intelligence community to immediately inform election officials and relevant congressional committees about current threats to our election system.

Director Coats, this week at a Senate Intelligence Committee, you and five other top intelligence officials testified that there is no indication that Russia has decreased its efforts to undermine our democracy and that Russia is currently working to disrupt the upcoming 2018 elections. Other Administration officials, including Secretary Tillerson, have confirmed that Russia is continuing its efforts to destabilize democracies across the world, including our own. Russia is not deterred, and the attacks on our democracy have continued.

The next federal election is 263 days away, and the first primaries begin in a few short weeks. However, as you acknowledged in your testimony this week, little has been done at the federal level to protect our election systems from another attack. The least we can do is ensure that state election officials -- the people on the front lines of our democratic process -- have the information they need to combat threats. This is vital to protecting our national security against cyberattacks.

The public also needs to know the ways in which Russia is working to subvert our democracy in order to better distinguish between propaganda disguised as news and real, reliable information. Therefore, we strongly urge you to release a public report identifying how Russia is working to interfere in the 2018 elections and to provide a classified appendix to relevant Senate and House Committees as well as state election officials with the proper clearances. In the appendix, please include information regarding our intelligence agencies' current collection posture with regard to Russia's attempts to sabotage U.S. elections and whether such information been prioritized as a collection target.

Given the proximity of the next elections, time is of the essence.

We look forward to working with you to protect our election systems from foreign interference.

Sincerely,