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JUDY WOODRUFF: We turn back
to the Russia investigations
and the issue at their core:

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that government's meddling
in the 2016 U.S. election.

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How Russian officials made
it happen is the focus of at
least three official probes in

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Washington, but information
about what they did and didn't
do to our voting process and

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to our confidence in
our election system has
come in fits and starts.

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A new cover story for "TIME"
magazine takes a deep dive into
what we know now, connecting

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the dots of how, why
and how far they went.

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It's titled "Inside the
Secret Plan to Stop Vladimir
Putin's U.S. Election Plot."

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And the author, "TIME"
magazine's Massimo Calabresi,
is here with me now.

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Welcome to the program, Massimo.

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So, what you have reported in
this issue of "TIME" is what
we don't know before, how far

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the federal government had
gone last year to prevent
damage by the Russians.

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MASSIMO CALABRESI, "TIME":
In the days leading up
to the election, the top
federal cyber-security

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officials realized that,
for the efforts they
had taken throughout
the election, our voting

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system was still vulnerable, not
to interference with the actual
vote count, but to undermining

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the credibility of the vote,
the integrity of the vote,
which is, of course, the purpose

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of voting to begin with,
to reach a consensus
that the democratic
will of the people has

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been expressed.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: So, what
was it that the government
was prepared to do?

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MASSIMO CALABRESI: Well, they
enumerated in this 15-page
plan some extraordinary steps.

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They stipulated at the beginning
that, under most circumstances,
the federal government

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would defer to the states
in a cyber-incident,
but in a particularly
bad one, for example,

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one that halted voting at a
voting place, they would go
so far as to send armed law

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enforcement, federal
law enforcement agents
to polling places.

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They were prepared to
deploy active and reserve
military forces in case
of a massive incident.

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And they also prepared for
counterpropaganda efforts in the
wake of the vote, should false

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information be spread to try
and undermine its credibility.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And what had they
seen that caused them to go to
this length before election?

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MASSIMO CALABRESI: So,
initially, they saw
one or two states back
in the summer where

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the Russians had broken
into the voter registration
rolls and meddled around.

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But the more they looked,
the more they found other
states had been compromised.

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And they didn't quite know
what the Russians were doing.

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Initially, they thought they
might be able to swing the
vote, but they soon concluded

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that actual meddling with
the vote count wasn't
going to be possible.

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But they decided that what
the Russians could do was take
certain actions that would call

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into question whether it
had been free and fair, like
interfering with the reporting

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systems on election
night, meddling with
voter rolls throughout
the country in ways that

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would cause long lines
or, in swing states, might
cause an extraordinary
number of provisional

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ballots to be cast.

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(CROSSTALK)

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Excuse me,
but there were instances
where -- you have
reported, because you have

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written a number of
stories about this, were in
California, for example.

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There was an instance where a
number of people reported they
had trouble voting because of

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how their identity had been
changed in voter registration.

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MASSIMO CALABRESI:
That's absolutely right.

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On primary day in California
in June 2016, the local DA
started getting a bench of calls

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from voters saying that they
were not being allowed to vote
because their voter registration

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information had been changed
in the statewide voter
registration database.

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The hackers remain unknown in
that case because the state of
California doesn't record the

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I.P. addresses of computers
that make changes.

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But, looking back, the federal
officials who were in charge
of defending the vote, in the

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context of the other Russian
intrusions, concluded
that this might have
been a test run by the

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Russians to show what kind
of disruption they could
cause on Election Day.

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And indeed, in this county
in California, the voters
became quite agitated, and the

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mystery actually fed the doubt.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, I want
to press you on this, because
you're saying that the Russians

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were not able -- they weren't
worried that the Russians were
going to be able to change

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the final vote count.

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MASSIMO CALABRESI: That's right.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: But were able
to get in, in a remarkable
way, into state voter files,

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into election systems.

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MASSIMO CALABRESI: And this is
what's so important, because the
Russians had over time become

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bolder and bolder about their
intrusions, and had not tried
to hide the fact that they

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were breaking into systems.

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The Russians are very
skilled cyber-actors, among
the best in the world.

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So the fact they were remaining
in the open was a clue to the
larger purpose of the operation.

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And it's crucial to
keep this in mind.

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The first and primary goal of
the Russian operation against
the election was to undermine

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American faith in the
democratic process, the
first and abiding goal.

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Every secondary goal that came
had to first fulfill undermining
our faith in the democratic

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process.

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And so what the cyber-security
officials at the White House
and across government at the

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FBI and intelligence community
concluded was that these
intrusions were less about the

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specific effect that they
could have than they were on
undermining the faith of the

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Americans in
elections generally.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And it appears
that they succeeded, at
least in part, in doing that.

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And you report that there is
every reason to think that
they may still be engaged in

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this.

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We have an election, governors
election coming up, this year.

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MASSIMO CALABRESI: That's right.

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That's right.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: All
of our congressional
elections next year.

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MASSIMO CALABRESI: That's right.

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That's right.

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The crucial thing here is,
this is an attack by Russia on
America, not on a particular

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candidate or on a
particular party.

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Their interests are in weakening
the U.S. at home and abroad.

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And that's why it's so important
now that we take steps to
try and secure our election,

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so that this kind of exercise,
propaganda, influence operation
designed to undermine

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our faith in the democratic
process here can't
succeed in the future.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And how high
up in the Russian government
does the direction of this go?

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We know that at one point
President Obama was reportedly
telling Vladimir Putin, cut

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it out.

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MASSIMO CALABRESI:
Well, that's right.

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Obama famously confronted him
in that photograph of the two
staring at each other icily in

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China at a meeting and
told him to cut it out.

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The intelligence community
reported publicly in
their assessment in
January that the operation

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had been approved at
the highest level.

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And my sources tell
me that means Putin.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, it doesn't
get any higher than that.

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MASSIMO CALABRESI: That's right.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And
it's a remarkable
collection of stories.

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Congratulations on
all this reporting.

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And I know you're
continuing to work on it.

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MASSIMO CALABRESI: Thank you.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Massimo Calabresi
with "TIME," thank you.

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MASSIMO CALABRESI:
Thanks for having me.