Reps Krishnamoorthi and Demings Call on DNI to Publicly Release Information on Foreign Adversary Exploitation of Social Unrest in America

SCHAUMBURG, IL – Today, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL) and Congresswoman Val Demings (FL) wrote to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), John Ratcliffe, calling for the DNI make available to the public information regarding any actions taken by foreign adversaries to exploit tensions and social unrest in American communities with intent to influence the upcoming election. This follows a previous request by Members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to which the DNI responded with a classified letter, which cannot be made public.

"We strongly believe that keeping all of this information classified will severely hinder our ability to combat foreign meddling and will potentially allow the United States government to repeat the same mistakes as in 2016" the Members wrote. "We respectfully urge the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to publicly release similar but unclassified material which will strengthen public awareness of exploitation by foreign actors and interference in our political process."

Multiple sources have confirmed that the Russian government took extensive actions to interfere in the 2016 elections. In light of this, the Members have requested the DNI to provide as much unclassified information about attempts to influence or interfere in the 2020 elections as possible. The Members asked for this information to be provided in a timely manner to allow for election officials, the intelligence community, the private sector, state officials, and the general public to work together to resist such interference in a non-partisan manner.

The Members requested a response by September 15th, and the full letter is available here.