Scott says he wasn’t told of hacking infiltration in 2016
Former governor: Homeland Security never warned of Russian Scott criticized Nelson’s allegations, host. “It got released on Thursday. saying they were sensational. I’m sorry.” The Senate report outlined efforts
Current Gov. Ron DeSantis by Russian hackers to get into said in May that the hackers systems in Illinois and around two didn’t manipulate any data and dozen unnamed states. the election results weren’t compromised. It detailed attempts in Illinois DeSantis and other officials and a state only referred to as briefed on the matter “State 2” but widely believed to wouldn’t say which counties. be Florida, according to news reports.
“And the bottom line is, they got into two counties. But they The FBI believed at one point had no impact,” Scott said. “They in 2018 that four county systems didn’t change any voter registration, in “State 2” may have been infiltrated voter rolls. They didn’t or been the target of suspicious change any votes.” activity, according to the
Scott made his comments when Senate report. asked about a Senate report released The Senate report also said the last week that said all states FBI had opened an investigation were targeted to varying degrees into suspicious activity in “State 2” by Russian hackers. Scott said he as early as August 2016 and had hasn’t yet read the report, though conducted outreach to county he was briefed on it. elections officials.
“You haven’t read this report yet?” said Chuck Todd, the show’s
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott said Sunday that he was never told by Homeland Security officials in 2016 when he was Florida’s governor that Russian hackers had gained access to voter databases in two Florida counties ahead of the presidential election.
Scott said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was never contacted by the Department of Homeland Security in 2016 about the infiltration. The Republican said he learned about most of the details this year.
Last August, then-Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, whom Scott narrowly defeated, said that Russians had penetrated the systems of certain Florida counties and had “free rein to move about” before last year’s midterm election.
In December 2017, the secretary of state and elections director in “State 2” told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that there never was an attack on the state’s systems.
The state officials didn’t want to share its “cybersecurity posture” with the committee, but the report says the Department of Homeland Security was “complimentary” of the steps the state had taken to secure its voting systems by August 2018.
On Sunday, Scott maintained there was no infiltration of Florida election systems in the 2018 election. But Scott warned that Russia, Iran and China were working to impact the 2020 elections.
“Everybody needs to work together to make sure this doesn’t happen,” Scott said. “But all of us have to understand the Russians are here and other countries. They’re going to try to influence our elections.”