Podesta Points Finger at FBI’s Hacking Response

In a Friday opinion piece for The Washington Post, former Clinton campaign chief John Podesta railed against the FBI’s response to the cyberattacks that led to his and the DNC’s emails being publicly released in the run-up to Election Day. “I was surprised to read in The New York Times that when the FBI discovered the Russian attack in September 2015, it failed to send even a single agent to warn senior Democratic National Committee officials,” he wrote. “Instead, messages were left with the DNC IT ‘help desk.’” Podesta described the “infuriating” comparison between the FBI’s “seemingly lackadaisical response” to Russian hackings and the agency’s “massive response to the overblown email scandal”—a juxtaposition that is “particularly troubling because of [the FBI’s] power and responsibility.” He also reiterated calls for the Obama administration to declassify information about the hackings; for the administration to brief electors on the extent of the Russian hacking; for a congressional panel like the 9/11 Commission to further investigate; and for Congress to determine why the FBI acted so “insufficiently” in its response to the hacks. “What’s broken in the FBI must be fixed and quickly,” Podesta concluded.