Russia tried to hijack US election, says US senator

Russia tried to hijack the US democratic process, says a senator investigating alleged interference in the US election.

BBC reports that a hearing by the Senate Intelligence Committee opened on Thursday morning. Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is to appear next week.

US intelligence agencies believe Russia tried to help Mr Trump win in November by damaging Hillary Clinton.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin has flatly denied the allegations.

In the committee’s opening remarks, Ranking Democrat Mark Warner said “Russia sought to hijack our democratic process” by employing a disinformation campaign on social media, which he describes as “Russian propaganda on steroids”.

He said Thursday’s session would examine how Russia may have used technology to spread disinformation in the US, including the possible generation of fake news for voters in key states, such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Embarrassing “stolen information” was released through websites such as Wikileaks, Mr Warner said, at “seemingly choreographed times that would cause maximum damage to one candidate” – Hillary Clinton.

“They did this with an unprecedented level of sophistication,” he said.

Committee chairman Republican Richard Burr said “we are all targets of a sophisticated and capable adversary”. He added that “if we politicise this, our efforts will likely fail”.

Clinton Watts, a homeland security expert testifying before the committee, said Russian influencing continues presently against both US political parties, saying “they win because they play both sides”.

“This past week we observed social media accounts discrediting [Republican] Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, hoping to further foment unrest inside US democratic institutions,” he told the committee.

Mr Watts added that pro-Russian social media accounts continue to tweet at President Trump during times that they know he is online, hoping that he will read and cite fake news reports.

Former National Security Agency director Keith Alexander will be one of those testifying on Thursday.