Former FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that he first became aware of Russia-connected cyber attacks in the summer of 2015, and that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was not their only target.
“When did you become aware of the cyber intrusion?” North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr and Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Comey.
“There’s all kind of cyber intrusions going on all of the time,” Comey responded. “The first Russia-connected cyber intrusion I became aware of in the late summer of 2015.”
“And in that time frame there were more than the DNC and the D triple C that were targets?” Burr asked, referring to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“Correct, there was a massive effort to target government and near-governmental agencies like non-profits,” Comey responded.
In late summer of 2015, signs that the so-called establishment wing of the Republican party was in trouble bubbled to the surface. Polling in Aug. 2015 revealed that Donald Trump was already dominating the crowded Republican primary field.
Donald Trump was polling at 25 percent in a Aug. 14, 2015 Fox News survey. Fellow outsiders retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz took the second and third spot in the same poll. The candidates closely associated as a part of the traditional GOP establishment wallowed in the single digits, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dropping to 9 percent. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was at 4 percent near the end of the summer of 2015.
Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday morning, Comey said that the Russians were targeting hundreds, if not thousands, of entities in the lead up to the 2016 campaign.
While he couldn’t say for sure when he first became aware that data had been ex-filtrated by the Russians, Comey estimated that it was either in late 2015 or early 2016.
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