US Doing Little To Combat Russia Meddling In Next Elections

The Russians are going to try it again. Even President Donald Trump’s intelligence chiefs say so.

But with congressional primaries just two weeks away, the U.S. has done little to aggressively combat the kinds of Russian election meddling that was recently unmasked in federal court.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s surprise indictment last week in his wide-ranging Russia investigation sounded a fresh alarm to the U.S. government, social media companies and state election officials who are readying for the 2018 midterms.

What’s being done — or not — in the wake of Mueller’s revelations:

IN CONGRESS

Mueller’s indictment charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election through a social media propaganda effort that included online ad purchases using U.S. aliases and politicking on U.S. soil. Congressional committees held hearings on the social media attacks last fall, but legislation to require technology companies to enhance openness for online political ads has stalled amid GOP concerns of overregulation.

None of the congressional committees investigating the interference — both the social media efforts and attempted Russian hacking of state election systems — have yet proposed policy changes to prevent it in the future. Senate intelligence committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., has said he wants to issue a report on security findings and legislative recommendations before the primaries begin, but it’s unclear if the panel will do so before Texas’ March 5 voting.

Leaders of the House intelligence committee have also said they will issue a report with recommendations on how to prevent foreign interference. But the Republican-led panel has been more focused in recent weeks on whether the FBI conspired against Trump.

THE WHITE HOUSE