

(Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a close Trump ally, is concerned that Russia could hack our next election. He told reporter Allison Kaplan Sommer in Tel Aviv earlier today that he’s “very worried” that there could be “cyber-interference” of a more serious nature than there was in 2016 — meaning interference that could alter vote totals and effect the election outcome.

Giuliani’s admission is significant, and not just because it’s an admission — from someone so sympathetic to Trump — that the ongoing threat of Russian hacking is real and not “fake news.” Giuliani, who serves as the Chair of the Cybersecurity, Privacy and Crisis Management Practice at the law firm Greenberg Traurig, is also an informal advisor to Trump on cybersecurity issues.

Today’s Tel Aviv speaking engagement was in Giuliani’s Greenberg Traurig capacity, as part of a cybersecurity conference. But his dual role was emphasized; according to the invitation to the event, Giuliani also “leads a group of private sector representatives who share information about cyber security with President Trump and the Administration.” According to White House statements, Giuliani has met twice with the president to discuss cybersecurity — but only in the energy sector, financial industry, and hospitals.

All this raises a question: is Giuliani offering the president any advice on how to prevent the next hack, and what, if anything is the Trump administration doing to prevent it?

Trump by most appearances remains indifferent to doing anything about what cybersecurity experts have described as likely and intensified Russian interference in our 2018 midterm elections and beyond. Yet Giuliani’s comments show that at least some people close to Trump are attuned to the severity of the Russian hacking threat.

Giuliani’s appearance in Tel Aviv was ostensibly as a private citizen, but he also spoke about his relationship with Trump, which only underscores the disconnect between his own Russian hacking concerns and Trump’s inattention to addressing them. Giuliani said that he would be participating in an upcoming presidential trip to Eastern Europe, during which he promised Trump would reassure NATO allies of the United States’ commitment to the alliance.

In his interview with Haaretz, Giuliani flatly declared that Trump has no “involvement” with Vladimir Putin. But Giuliani nonetheless recognized the ongoing Russian threat to U.S. election cybersecurity. He acknowledged Russian interference in 2016 involving “the hacking of politicians, the exposure of secrets, the exposure of their secret conversations.” He then went on to affirm the findings of the intelligence community. While Giuliani did tell Sommer that there was “no evidence” that Russian interference tampered with the vote count, he also said that “the Russians attempted to interfere with the election by hacking some of the politicians and putting out what is regarded as negative information about them.” This is the view of many experts.

Not only that, but Giuliani explicitly said Russia could try to do this again. He pronounced himself “very worried” there could be more serious “cyber-interference,” potentially involving manipulation of vote counts, and he advocated for a paper trail to ensure reliable results.

On the security of future elections, then, Giuliani also shares the concerns of cybersecurity experts and intelligence officials that future hacking efforts could alter election results. Indeed, today’s admission from Giuliani caps off a week of intense focus on what the U.S. government knew about Russian efforts during the 2016 campaign, what efforts were or weren’t made to thwart the cyber-interference, and now, what the Trump administration is doing (or not) to prevent the next attack. Last week, officials from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security acknowledged to lawmakers that Russian hackers made inroads into election computer systems in 21 states in 2016, and that they have the tools to make successful cyber-intrusions in future elections. Lawmakers expressed frustration and dismay over the opacity about any possible government plans, protocols, or procedures to prevent future hacking.

But Trump has done nothing significant to reassure the public that his administration is doing anything about this possibility. Instead, Trump has turned his attention to blaming former president Barack Obama. The day after that hearing, he tweeted, “By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn’t they stop them?” The following day, The Post published an in-depth investigation into the Obama administration’s failures to act in the face of Russian meddling in 2016, prompting Trump to tweet, “Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?”

But if Trump is now admitting that Russia did interfere, and bashing Obama for failing to do anything about it, what is the Trump administration doing to protect American democracy from future Russian meddling?

Giuliani’s remarks in Tel Aviv should only intensify this line of questioning for the administration. If Trump’s own trusted informal adviser, a cybersecurity expert, is “very worried” about future hacking of the kind that poses even more dire risks to our democracy than we saw in 2016, doesn’t Trump’s indifference and inaction deserve more scrutiny?