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Russia is determined to interfere in U.S. elections, including in 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing Tuesday. Sanctions and other measures have not deterred Vladimir Putin, he said.
"The Russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections," he told senators. "Everything we've done against Russia has not deterred them enough?" asked Chairman Lindsey Graham. "All the sanctions, all the talk, they're still at it?" Wray reiterated his point in response: "Yes. My view is until they stop they haven't been deterred enough."
Part of that might be due to the fact that sanctions against one prominent Russian who interfered in the election, Oleg V. Deripaska, were lifted by the Trump administration. You remember Deripaska, the great friend of Vladimir Putin who was sanctioned by the Obama administration for his election interference in 2016. It's his company, Rusal, that's now investing $200 million in an aluminum plant in Kentucky. That's right, Kentucky. The home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who led the fight against reimposition of those sanctions.
There's also the fact that McConnell continues to block any election security legislation passed by the Democratic House from coming to the floor of the Senate.
All of which Lindsey Graham knows very well. He could do something about it, if he really cared. He’s a powerful committee chairman who could stand up to McConnell. Except that he’s even deeper in Trump’s pocket than McConnell is.