Nancy Pelosi urges Paul Ryan to oppose campaign use of hacked documents
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asked Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday to join her in opposing their parties’ use in the campaign of documents that were leaked in hacking attacks.
“It is my hope that you will join me in opposing the NRCC or the DCCC from using any documents from Russian criminal cyber attacks in this campaign,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to Ryan.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is the campaign arm for House Republicans and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is the campaign arm for House Democrats.
Pelosi said that House Democrats and the DCCC were victims of a “large-scale and sophisticated Russian cyber-attack” which she called “an unprecedented assault on the sanctity of our democratic process.”
“We must come together to say that defending our democracy from Russia’s meddling is more important than any advantage or disadvantage in this election,” she said. “Democrats and Republicans must present a united front in the face of Russia’s attempts to tamper with the will of the American people.”
On Monday, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told reporters that she’s “really concerned” about Russia meddling in U.S. elections this year following the hacking attacks at the Democratic National Committee and other groups this summer.
Her remarks come after the FBI confirmed last week that hackers had accessed Arizona’s and Illinois’ state election databases over the summer.
Top Democrats in the House asked the FBI last week to investigate whether connections between Donald Trump’s campaign aides and Russian interests led to the attacks at the DNC and other groups.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, has asked the FBI to look into the possibility that Russia is trying to manipulate the U.S. presidential election.