The Atlantic

Reporting Foreign Meddling in Elections Shouldn’t Be Optional

A member of the House Intelligence Committee unveils a bill that would obligate campaigns to tell the FBI when foreign powers offer dirt on their opponents.
Source: Aaron Bernstein / Reuters

Over the past year, I’ve spent hours listening to witnesses talk about the events of the 2016 campaign. The House Intelligence Committee, on which I sit, has been investigating Russian interference in the election. Multiple members of Donald Trump’s campaign, businesses, and family, I’ve learned, were contacted by individuals linked to the Russian government—but none of them, so far as we know, reported these contacts to law-enforcement agencies.

For years, America has helped protect against terrorist attacks by telling Americans, “If you see something, say

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic7 min readAmerican Government
Could South Carolina Change Everything?
For more than four decades, South Carolina has been the decisive contest in the Republican presidential primaries—the state most likely to anoint the GOP’s eventual nominee. On Saturday, South Carolina seems poised to play that role again. Since the
The Atlantic4 min read
Hayao Miyazaki’s Anti-war Fantasia
Once, in a windowless conference room, I got into an argument with a minor Japanese-government official about Hayao Miyazaki. This was in 2017, three years after the director had announced his latest retirement from filmmaking. His final project was
The Atlantic5 min readAmerican Government
What Nikki Haley Is Trying to Prove
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Nikki Haley faces terrible odds in her home state of

Related Books & Audiobooks