Senators to discuss first findings in Russia probe

Leaders of the Senate intelligence committee are set to release preliminary findings about Russian intervention in the 2016 election and begin to publicly warn states, voters and social media companies about how to prevent any future meddling.
Republican Sen Richard Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the panel, and Virginia Sen Mark Warner, the top Democrat, will speak to reporters in the Capitol today. The idea is to lay out some of what the committee has found so far as the 2018 midterm elections approach.
Since Burr and Warner began the investigation in January, the panel has interviewed dozens of intelligence and political officials to assess the extent of Russian interference in last year's election.

The committee, along with several others in Congress, is also investigating any connections between the Russian meddling and President Donald Trump's campaign. The panel has interviewed former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.
Burr said last week that "there's no evidence of anything" so far connecting the Trump campaign and the Russian interference.
The committee leaders also are expected to talk about efforts to hack state election systems. Federal authorities notified 21 states last month that they had been targeted by Russian government hackers during the 2016 presidential election, around a year after the efforts were first discovered.

Warner has been critical of the Homeland Security Department for being slow to notify the states and pushed Trump administration officials for months to move more quickly and make their findings public.
The Senate panel has also been focused on Russian efforts to push out social media messages on Twitter and Facebook, and is examining more than 3,000 Russia-linked ads that Facebook turned over to Congress this week. Facebook has said the ads focused on divisive social and political messages, including LGBT issues, immigration and gun rights and were seen by an estimated 10 million people before and after the 2016 election.