Grassley, Johnson Praise Trump Admin Actions Against Foreign Disinformation & Election Interference

Washington – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) today issued the following statement regarding the Treasury Department’s announced sanctions on Russian-aligned actors seeking to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

 

“Foreign election meddling in all of its forms from any corner of the globe cannot be tolerated. We commend the Trump Administration for holding accountable perpetrators of foreign interference, and I hope my Democratic colleagues in Congress will finally stop relying on disinformation from the likes of Andriy Derkach to smear their political rivals,” the Chairmen said.

In July, congressional Democrats relied on material created by Andriy Derkach to wrongly speculate that Grassley and Johnson may have received material from Derkach. That incorrect and unclassified analysis was woven into a classified addendum to a Democrat-penned letter on election security, and later leaked to the media, which incorrectly reported the speculation as fact. In August, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned of Derkach’s influence campaign, and the Director of National Intelligence recently confirmed that the Democrats’ addendum was not authorized by the intelligence community and does not reflect its full and complete analysis of election threats.

 

Grassley and Johnson have previously called on their Democratic colleagues to stop relying on Derkach’s material for official congressional actions and false political narratives.