Reality Winner gave a classified NSA "document to The Intercept, a
three-year-old news site created by Pierre Omidyar, a close friend of Bill Clinton. Omidyar’s wife Pamela donated $1 million to the Clinton Foundation." Democrat Denise Merrill is president of the National Association of Secretaries of State and co-chairman of the group’s Election Cybersecurity
Task Force. Merrill’s comments contradict those in the leaked NSA document reported by The Intercept. “There is no evidence that this (hacking) has happened.”...“This is the most important point, I think. Yes, there is
strong speculation here, but nothing has actually happened.” "We did ask...and over-and-over again, they did say there was no credible threat
that they had found. And they said that right through the election." Merrill believes stories like that in The Intercept weaken public
trust in the integrity of state and local election systems. “These kind of stories make the public think there should be a lack
of trust in their elections. And that shouldn’t be the case. This is the
most destructive thing about this.”..."There was no indication of a Florida-specific issue,” she (Fla. Dept. of State spokesperson Revell)
stated. Revell added the FBI “did not provide any information specific
to VR Systems.” “Florida had a smooth and secure election in 2016,” Revell said...
6/7/2017, "EXCLUSIVE: Obama Never Warned State Election Officials Of Russian Election ‘Hacking’," Daily Caller, Richard Pollack
"Neither former President Barack Obama nor any member of his cabinet
warned state election officials of any Russian effort to hack or
interfere with the country’s electoral systems, according to the
president of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
“We did ask,” Denise Merrill, Connecticut secretary of state and the
association’s top official, told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s
Investigative Group Wednesday.
“And over-and-over again, they did say there was no credible threat
that they had found. And they said that right through the election, and
the next administration reiterated that. Over and over again when we
asked, we were told there was no actual threat that they knew of,”
Merrill said.
Asked if there were any private briefings for state election
officials on possible Russian interference prior to the November 2016
voting, Merrill said, “No. We were not briefed on any of that. We were
not told in advance.”
Merrill also claimed the administration failed to take state
officials aside about a potential or real Russian threat to election
machinery. “That’s right, because I don’t really think there was one,” she said.
Merrill is a Democrat who previously served as majority leader in the
Connecticut House of Representatives. In addition to serving as
president of the association representing all of her fellow secretaries
of state, she also is co-chairman of the group’s Election Cybersecurity
Task Force
.
Obama’s former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson seemed to
confirm Merrill’s comments. He was quoted Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the
Press” in an NBC tweet saying “Fmr DHS Sec. Jeh Johnson says there was ‘no altering of voter counts’ in 2016 election. ‘I know of no such evidence.'”
Merrill’s comments contradict an unsigned top-secret National Security Agency document that was pilfered by Reality Winner, a 25-year old private-sector contract employee.
Winner gave the classified document to The Intercept, a
three-year-old news site created by Pierre Omidyar, a close friend of Bill Clinton. Omidyar’s wife Pamela donated $1 million to the Clinton Foundation.
.
Federal agents arrested Winner June 3 in her home in Georgia and charged her
under the Espionage Act for leaking classified information to a news
outlet. She is currently in federal detention and is scheduled to have a
federal court hearing Thursday.
Winner had worked for three months for the Alexandria, Va.-based
Pluribus International Corporation. The company is under contract to the
Army Intelligence and Security Command, which operates within the Army
and NSA.
Winner was a harsh critic of President Donald Trump and publicly said
she would “stand” with Iran in a hypothetical war with the U.S.,
according to a news report by Business Insider.
“I think it’s unfortunate these reports are being leaked,” Merrill told TheDCNF.
Col. Jim Waurishuk (Ret.), a former senior intelligence official who
spent 30 years in the field, told TheDCNF the NSA document Winner
released “was an extremely high-level classified Top Secret Special
Intelligence document,” which is “originator controlled,” meaning “the
NSA has total control of this document. They determine who it gets
disseminated to and it cannot be further disseminated unless it’s
approved by the NSA.”
Waurishuk, who is vice president of OPSEC, a nonprofit association of
former Special Forces and intelligence officials, was asked by TheDCNF
to review the document.
“This document has nothing to do with affecting the election or with
ballots,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the outcome of the
election. This is merely a foreign signals intercept by U.S.
intelligence officials.”
The Russians were “basically going to the office computers of a
private company that served election organizations. Their malware went
there, not to election balloting machinery. They were hoping office
workers might be lured into a phishing effort,” Waurishuk said.
The NSA document stated the limited incursion to penetrate the office
computers failed. “Three of the malicious emails were rejected by the
email server” which targeted a Tallahassee company called VR systems,
according to the NSA document."...
[Ed. note: It failed? The following paragraph says it's "unknown" if the spear-phishing succeeded.]
(continuing): "“It is unknown whether the aforementioned spear-phishing deployment
successfully compromised the intended victims,” the NSA document
concluded.
“There is no evidence that this (hacking) has happened,” Merrill told
TheDCNF. “This is the most important point, I think. Yes, there is
strong speculation here, but nothing has actually happened.”
Merrill believes stories like that in The Intercept weaken public
trust in the integrity of our state and local election systems.
“These kind of stories make the public think there should be a lack
of trust in their elections. And that shouldn’t be the case. This is the
most destructive thing about this,” she told TheDCNF.
Election tallying and tabulation systems in all 50 states work
offline and are not connected to the Internet. They are managed by
people, not machines, Merrill said.
“Everything has paper backup,” she told TheDCNF. “Most states have
paper ballots that you vote on. There is always a paper backup of the
voter registration lists.”
The NSA intelligence document suggested the Russians sought to hack
VR Systems in Florida and could have had an impact on Florida election
systems.
But the state doesn’t rely on any machines. It’s election system is paper based.
“All voting in Florida is done on paper ballots so we can always
refer to the original record,” explained Sarah Revell, a spokeswoman for
the Florida Department of State in a statement to TheDCNF.
“Additionally, voting machines are not connected to the internet,” she
stated.
Revell said Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner participated in a
September 2016 informational call with the FBI on the need to maintain
security.
“But there was no indication of a Florida-specific issue,” she
stated. Reveal added the FBI “did not provide any information specific
to VR Systems.”
“Florida had a smooth and secure election in 2016,” Revell said."
http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/07/exclusive-obama-never-warned-state-election-officials-of-russian-election-hacking/
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Via:
June 12, 2017, "Does Anyone Remember When Obama’s DHS Tried to Hack the Indiana Voting System?" Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh "Related Links"
2/21/17, Daily Caller: Obama’s Feds Tried to Hack Indiana’s Election System While Pence Was Governor
6/7/2017, Daily Caller: Obama Never Warned State Election Officials Of Russian Election ‘Hacking’
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