LAWMAKERS WANT TO SEE MORE SANCTIONS
Microsoft finds bogus web domains created by group linked to Russian military intelligence.
Microsoft Corp.’s declaration that it found and seized bogus web domains created by Russian hackers amplified calls by U.S. lawmakers to pass legislation imposing more sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s government and his associates.
“This is not something that is in the rearview mirror,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday at a hearing on sanctions aimed in part at deterring Russian efforts to interfere in U.S. elections.
The Senate Banking and Foreign Relations Committees held simultaneous hearings where lawmakers of both parties expressed frustration with actions by the Treasury Department and comments by President Donald Trump, who has dismissed special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign as a “witch hunt.”
“Our commander in chief continues to undermine” efforts to counter Russia through his comments, Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told administration officials.
The previously scheduled hearings took on new urgency after Microsoft’s finding late Monday that a shadowy group with links to Russian military intelligence created domains that mimicked organizations such as the International Republican Institute and Hudson Institute. The intention was to make victims believe they were receiving emails or visiting real sites, according to the technology company.
The groups are conservative bastions but have been at odds at times with Russia or Trump. Russia rejected the accusation that it’s attempting to influence this year’s U.S. midterm elections.
Several senators pushed administration witnesses on whether they would embrace tough new sanctions legislation.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., told Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker that legislation is moving.
“Congress is going to act. You might as well know that,” he said. Menendez has proposed stiff sanctions along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., including on sovereign debt and energy.
Despite Menendez’s prediction that congressional action is a sure thing, it’s not clear yet that lawmakers will act in time to affect the November elections.
A number of bills have been proposed, with the leading one sponsored by Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Their measure would impose stiff sanctions if Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats finds Russia is continuing to meddle in U.S. elections.
“It’s pretty clear that Putin hasn’t gotten the message,” Van Hollen said Tuesday. “We just had the Microsoft story today, the Facebook story a few weeks ago. Clearly Russians and Putin thank that they can interfere with impunity.”