2016 elections

No sign that Russians accessed NM voter systems

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There’s no indication that New Mexico’s voter databases were improperly accessed, according to New Mexico’s secretary of state. This comes even as U.S. senators probed the issue in a hearing Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning, Jeanette Manfra, the acting undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications at DHS, told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee that election systems in 21 states were targeted in a Russian cyber attack. Manfra declined to say which states were targeted or what, if any, data was accessed by the hackers. Jeh Johnson said that while interference by Russia “was unprecedented” in “scale and scope,” there was no indication that Russians changed any votes in 2016.

Congress & Federal Issues

Heinrich asks Obama to declassify info on Russian involvement in elections

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U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich wants the information about the Russian government’s involvement in the recent U.S. election to be declassified. Heinrich and the other Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee wrote a short letter to President Barack Obama asking for the declassification. “We believe there is additional information concerning the Russian Government and the U.S. election that should be declassified and released to the public,” the letter reads. The letter says specifics on the call for declassification were sent “through classified channels.”

In October, the Obama administration said that Russia was responsible for hacking of the Democratic National Committee emails. A private security firm said that Russian hackers were also behind the hacking of John Podesta’s emails.

Martin Heinrich

Podesta email shows Heinrich was on list for VP consideration

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Remember when, nearly a year ago, a longtime Democratic fundraiser floated Martin Heinrich’s name as a possible vice president pick for Hillary Clinton? Well, it may have been more than just idle speculation. A hacked email released by Wikileaks showed Heinrich’s name (misspelled as Heinreich) on a list of potential vice presidential picks back in March. The email received attention, not just for being a list of potential vice presidential candidates, but for Clinton campaign chair John Podesta putting them into “rough food groups.” These “food groups” sorted some by race or gender, their status in the military and, in a group by himself, Bernie Sanders. Another name in Heinrich’s “food group” (which Mediaite called “generic white guys”) was Tim Kaine, the U.S. Senator from Virginia who is now Clinton’s running mate.

Wikileaks

Email: Podesta asked Clinton to call ‘needy’ Richardson

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An email released as part of the Wikileaks data dump shows Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta saying that while former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson “can be a dick,” he still was worth talking to for a possible endorsement. “I had heard that you were upset that I encouraged a call between WJC and Richardson to bury the hatchet,” Podesta wrote to a Clinton staffer and what appears to be Clinton herself in August 2015. “I did that at the request of Jose Villarreal who pushed me and made the point that Richardson is still on TV a lot, especially on Univision and Telemundo and not withstanding [sic] the fact that he can be a dick, it was worth getting him in a good place.”

Villareal is Clinton’s campaign treasurer. The hacked email was titled, “Needy Latinos and 1 easy call.”

It’s not clear whether or not Hillary Clinton made the phone call, but two weeks after the date on the email, Richardson publicly endorsed Clinton. Thursday, Richardson responded, first on his Twitter account, then in a statement.