A Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee has introduced a bill that would obligate campaigns to inform the FBI if any foreign powers offer up political dirt on an opponent.
On Thursday, Rep. Eric Swalwell, introduced the Duty to Report Act which would make it a crime for federal candidates, their immediate families, or campaign staff to fail to notify the FBI if a foreign power or agent of a foreign power provides unsolicited, damaging information about an opponent.
“For years, we’ve advised our citizens, ’If you see something, say something’ to prevent terrorist attacks, and the same should apply to safeguarding our elections against foreign manipulation,” Mr. Swalwell said in a statement.
He added, “the hours upon hours of witness interviews in which I participated during the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation made clear the need for such legislation.”
Mr. Swalwell was a vocal Democrat on the House Intelligence committee, which earlier this spring released its final report on Russian meddling in the the 2016 presidential election after more than a year of investigating the issue.
Written by committee Republicans, the report found “no evidence” of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
It did however criticize “poor judgment and ill-considered actions” by campaign staff, including a controversial June 2016 Trump Tower meeting that involved Donald Trump Jr., other top Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
That meeting, and the White House’s initial response to revelations of the meeting, are reportedly a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian election investigation, which is probing whether the campaign colluded with Russia and whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice.
“This is not a partisan issue,” Mr. Swalwell said. “We must make it clear that no foreign attempts to influence our elections will be tolerated.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly denied working with the Russians and called the multiple investigations a “witch hunt.”
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