Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
The Russian government conducted foreign electoral interference in the 2016 United States elections with the goals of sabotaging the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. According to the U.S. Intelligence Community, the operation—code named "Project Lakhta"—was ordered directly by Russian president Vladimir Putin. The "hacking and disinformation campaign" to damage Clinton and help Trump became the "core of the scandal known as Russiagate".
The Internet Research Agency, based in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and described as a troll farm, created thousands of social media accounts that purported to be Americans supporting Trump and against Clinton. Fabricated articles and disinformation from Russian government-controlled media were promoted on social media where they reached millions of users between 2013 and 2017.
Computer hackers affiliated with the Russian military intelligence service infiltrated information systems of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Clinton campaign officials and publicly released stolen files and emails during the election campaign. Individuals connected to Russia contacted Trump campaign associates, offering business opportunities and proffering damaging information on Clinton. Russian government officials have denied involvement in any of the hacks or leaks, and Donald Trump denied the interference had even occurred.
Russian interference activities triggered strong statements from U.S. intelligence agencies, a direct warning by then-U.S. president Barack Obama to Russian president Vladimir Putin, renewed economic sanctions against Russia, and closures of Russian diplomatic facilities and expulsion of their staff. The Senate and House Intelligence Committees conducted their own investigations into the matter.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation of Russian interference in July 2016, including a special focus on links between Trump associates and Russian officials and suspected coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Russian attempts to interfere in the election were first disclosed publicly by members of the United States Congress in September 2016, confirmed by U.S. intelligence agencies in October 2016, and further detailed by the director of national intelligence's office in January 2017. President Trump dismissed FBI director James Comey in May 2017 partly because of Comey's investigation of the Russian interference.
The FBI's work was taken over in May 2017 by former FBI director Robert Mueller, who led a special counsel investigation until March 2019. Mueller concluded that Russian interference was "sweeping and systematic" and "violated U.S. criminal law", and he indicted twenty-six Russian citizens and three Russian organizations. The investigation also led to indictments and convictions of Trump campaign officials and associated Americans. The Mueller Report, released in April 2019, examined over 200 contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials but concluded that, though the Trump campaign welcomed the Russian activities and expected to benefit from them, there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal "conspiracy" or "coordination" charges against Trump or his associates.
The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee investigation released their report in five volumes between July 2019 and August 2020. The committee concluded that the intelligence community assessment alleging Russian interference was "coherent and well-constructed", and that the assessment was "proper", learning from analysts that there was "no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions". The report found that the Russian government had engaged in an "extensive campaign" to sabotage the election in favor of Trump, which included assistance from some of Trump's own advisers.
In November 2020, newly released passages from the Mueller special counsel investigation's report indicated: "Although WikiLeaks published emails stolen from the DNC in July and October 2016 and Stone—a close associate to Donald Trump—appeared to know in advance the materials were coming, investigators 'did not have sufficient evidence' to prove active participation in the hacks or knowledge that the electronic thefts were continuing."
In response to the investigations, Trump, Republican Party leaders, and right-wing conservatives promoted and endorsed false and debunked conspiracy theory counter-narratives in an effort to discredit the allegations and findings of the investigations, frequently referring to them as the "Russia hoax" or "Russian collusion hoax".
Background and Russian actors
Prior to its demise in 1991, the government of the Soviet Union had interfered in United States elections, including the elections of 1960 and 1984. Conversely, there was American influence in the Russian election of 1996. Thus, the Russian influence operation in 2016 was not entirely without precedent, though its techniques and scope were different.Prior Russian election interference in Ukraine
The May 2014 Ukrainian presidential election was disrupted by cyberattacks over several days, including the release of hacked emails, attempted alteration of vote tallies, and distributed denial-of-service attacks to delay the final result. They were found to have been launched by pro-Russian hackers. Malware that would have displayed a graphic declaring far-right candidate Dmytro Yarosh the electoral winner was removed from Ukraine's Central Election Commission less than an hour before polls closed. Despite this, Channel One Russia falsely reported that Yarosh had won, broadcasting the same fake graphic that had been planted on the election commission's website. Political scientist Peter Ordeshook said in 2017, "These faked results were geared for a specific audience in order to feed the Russian narrative that has claimed from the start that ultra-nationalists and Nazis were behind the revolution in Ukraine." The same Sofacy malware used in the Central Election Commission hack was later found on the servers of the Democratic National Committee. Around the same time as Russia's attempt to hack the 2014 elections, the Obama administration received a report suggesting that the Kremlin was building a disinformation program which could be used to interfere in Western politics.Vladimir Putin
In December 2016, two unidentified senior intelligence officials told several U.S. news media outletsthat they were highly confident that the operation to interfere in the 2016 presidential election was personally directed by Vladimir Putin.
Under Putin's direction, the goals of the operation are reported to have evolved from first undermining American trust in their own democracy to undermining Clinton's campaign, and by the fall of 2016 to directly helping Trump's campaign, possibly because Putin believed Trump would ease economic sanctions. Her presidential campaign's Russia policy advisor was Richard Lourie.
The officials believe Putin became personally involved after Russia accessed the DNC computers, because such an operation would require high-level government approval. White House press secretary Josh Earnest and Obama foreign policy advisor and speechwriter Ben Rhodes agreed with this assessment, with Rhodes saying operations of this magnitude required Putin's consent.
The Russian election interference operation was code named "Project Lakhta" and ordered directly by Putin. Putin, when asked if he wanted "President Trump to win the election", replied: "Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal." This was not a mere wish, as the Kremlin papers revealed that in January 2016, Putin authorized intensive measures to make sure Trump was elected.
In January 2017, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, delivered a declassified report, with a similar conclusion:
President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election. Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for president-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.
Putin blamed Clinton for the 2011–2012 mass protests in Russia against his rule, according to the report. FBI director James Comey also has testified that Putin disliked Clinton and preferred her opponent, and Clinton herself has accused Putin of having a grudge against her. Michael McFaul, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia, said the operation could be a retaliation by Putin against Clinton. Russian security expert Andrei Soldatov has said, " believes that with Clinton in the White House it will be almost impossible to lift sanctions against Russia. So it is a very important question for Putin personally. This is a question of national security."
Russian officials have denied the allegations multiple times. In June 2016, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied any connection of Russia to the DNC hacks. In December 2016, when U.S. intelligence officials publicly accused Putin of being directly involved in the covert operation, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said he was "astonished" by this "nonsense".
Putin also has denied any Kremlin involvement in the election campaign, though in June 2017 he told journalists that "patriotically minded" Russian hackers may have been responsible for the campaign cyberattacks against the U.S., and in 2018 he stated that he had wanted Trump to win the election "because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal."