Hillary Clinton’s campaign wants the Electoral College briefed on Russian interference

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is calling for the members of the Electoral College to receive an intelligence briefing on possible Russian interference in the presidential election before that body makes the results official on December 19.

With just one week before the Electoral College vote, Clinton campaign chair John Podesta released a statement today supporting a movement by some of the electors to receive the intelligence briefing. (Earlier on Monday, 10 presidential electors, mostly from states Clinton won, signed a letter requesting the briefing from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.)

“The bipartisan electors’ letter raises very grave issues involving our national security,” Podesta said in a statement Monday. “Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed.”

As Vox’s Andrew Prokop has explained, the electors are bound to support the results of their states and can face fines for not doing so. At least until now, only one Republican elector has said he won’t vote for Trump — Clinton would need 36 more to do so, which nobody has thought is really in the realm of possibility.

But this weekend’s reports from the New York Times and Washington Post about Russian interference in the election have fired the hopes of liberals desperate for something to stop Trump. And the Clinton campaign is following suit.

Here’s the rest of the statement, via MSNBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald:

The bipartisan electors’ letter raises very grave issues involving our national security. Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed.

On October 7, the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Homeland Security declared that the US Intelligence Community was confident that the Russian Government directed the hacking and leaking of emails from the DNC and others. Further, they concluded that the hacking and leaks were done for the purpose of interfering with our elections.

Each day that month, our campaign decried the interference of Russia in our campaign and its evident goal of hurting our campaign to aid Donald Trump. Despite our protestations, this matter did not receive the attention it deserved by the media in the campaign. We now know that the CIA has determined Russia’s interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. This should distress every American. Never before in the history of our Republic have we seen such an effort to undermine the bedrock of our democracy.

This is not a partisan issue and we are glad to see bipartisan support in the Congress for an investigation into Russia’s role. We believe that the Administration owes it to the American people to explain what it knows regarding the extent and manner of Russia’ interference and this be done as son as possible. To that end, we also support the request from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee to declassify information around Russia’s roles in the election and to make this available available to the public.