The Report does not. It merely repeats its accusation vaguely, abstractly, ad nauseam.
III
So it is doubtful that, as the DNI report charges, Russia successfully managed to harm Hillary Clinton's chances and promote Donald J. Trump" -- not, at least, enough to affect the outcome of the election.
If not, then this was not "the political equivalent of 9/11" (Morrell), or "the largest intelligence coup since ... World War II" (Gerson), or "a fundamental attack on America's natural processes which has never been done in the history of this nation" (Nance).
Unless, of course, the Russians employed other means of manipulating the election, means not cited by either government or media.
And so we ask:
Did the Russians somehow persuade FBI Director James Comey to send that infamous letter suggesting a re-opening of the Clinton email investigation?
Did the Russians force the broadcast and cable networks to give Trump up to two billion dollars worth of free publicity?
Did the Russians tell the media poobahs to tone down the reporting of Trump's lies and to enforce "balance" ("two-sides-ism").
Did the Russians engineer the voter cross-checking scheme that disqualified over a million minority (and predominantly Democratic) voters.
Did the Russians bribe Republican state legislators to enact voter suppression laws? Absent such laws in several key states, among them Pennsylvania and North Carolina, Hillary Clinton would have won the electoral college vote.
Did the Russians sabotage voting machines in Detroit? Because of "machine malfunction" in those overwhelmingly Democratic precincts, more than 70,000 votes were not counted , which by itself, would have been more than enough to deliver Michigan to Clinton. Those votes, on paper Opti-Scan ballots, could have been counted. But state GOP officials stymied that effort.
Did the Russians "infect" unverifiable paperless DRE voting machines with viruses that flipped votes from D to R?
Were the Russians responsible for fact that several Wisconsin counties reported more votes cast than registered voters?
Did the Russians direct the GOP lawyers and judges to interrupt Jill Stein's recount efforts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania?
All this, I submit, was, in Michael Morell's words, "an attack on our very democracy."
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