Sens. Johnson, Grassley Demand Records from DoD Research Agency on Potential Involvement in DNC Hack Attribution and Mueller Investigation
April 29, 2022
OSHKOSH—On Thursday, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Stefanie Tompkins, Director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), regarding the agency’s involvement with Georgia Tech researchers potentially connected to researching attribution of the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). A DARPA spokesman recently told the media, “to the best of our knowledge, no DARPA-funded researchers investigated the DNC hack.” However, recent reports revealed that Georgia Tech researchers created “white papers” relating to the DNC hack for DARPA and created documents relating to Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation.
Sens. Johnson and Grassley are demanding DARPA provide the alleged “white papers” reportedly titled: “Whitepaper on DNC attack attribution”; “Analysis of attacks of EOP (Executive Office of the President) networks”; “Whitepaper for DOJ on APT-29 related hackers, crypto coin transactions, and analysis that includes Yota-related domains”; and “‘Mueller List’ – list of domains and indicators related to APT-28”.
“The DNC hack occurred during the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, which was marked by claims of meddling by foreign actors. Some of those claims have since been confirmed to be disinformation efforts by operatives from the Democratic campaign. As details continue to emerge, the public is rightly concerned about the extent to which various federal agencies investigated, validated, dispelled or relied on these claims. Indeed, the credibility of some agencies has been called into question, and the public deserves a full accounting of federal officials’ involvement in these activities. Preserving or restoring public trust in these agencies requires transparency, candor and, when appropriate, corrective action,” the senators wrote.
Sens. Johnson and Grassley requested a response from DARPA on this matter no later than May 13, 2022.
The full text of the letter can be found attached
[1] Jerry Dunleavy, Durham-related emails prompt DARPA to deny involvement in attributing 2016 DNC hack to Russia, Wash. Examiner, Mar. 14, 2022, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/durham-related-emails-prompt-darpa-to-deny-involvement-in-attributing-2016-dnc-hack-to-russia.
[5] Margot Cleveland, Docs: Spygate Researchers Did Work For Former Special Counsel Robert Muller, The Federalist, Apr. 22, 2022, https://thefederalist.com/2022/04/22/docs-spygate-researchers-did-work-for-former-special-counsel-robert-mueller/.
[7] “Records” include any written, recorded, or graphic material of any kind, including letters, memoranda, reports, notes, electronic data (e-mails, email attachments, and any other electronically-created or stored information), calendar entries, inter-office communications, meeting minutes, phone/voice mail or recordings/records of verbal communications, and drafts (whether or not they resulted in final documents).
[8] Margot Cleveland, Docs: Spygate Researchers Did Work For Former Special Counsel Robert Muller, The Federalist, Apr. 22, 2022, https://thefederalist.com/2022/04/22/docs-spygate-researchers-did-work-for-former-special-counsel-robert-mueller/.
https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/2022/4/sens-johnson-grassley-demand-records-from-dod-research-agency-on-potential-involvement-in-dnc-hack-attribution-and-mueller-investigation