Benchmarks campaign letter sent to Congress

A bipartisan group of fifteen experts on congressional investigations and national security, including CREW’s Executive Director Noah Bookbinder and CREW Board Member former Rep. Claudine Schneider, released a set of benchmarks for evaluating ongoing congressional investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 federal elections and related matters.

In an accompanying letter to relevant members of Congress, the group stressed that “the American people want and need a full public accounting of any activity associated with the 2016 election or its aftermath that was illegal, inappropriate, or simply counter to the public interest.”

In order to do so, the groups calls on each Congressional committee involved in ongoing investigations into Russian interference in U.S. elections to commit publicly to certain benchmarks of process and substance.

The benchmarks address four critical elements: scope, bipartisanship, transparency, and reporting the results. The benchmarks for a credible investigation are: a well-defined scope, active bipartisan participation, public access to the information learned, and thorough public reporting of the investigation’s conclusions.