Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Thursday accused former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson of lying when he testified the Democratic National Committee refused his help with Russian hacking — doubling down on her assertion that she wasn't told about the intrusion.
In an interview on CNN, the Democratic Florida lawmaker refuted Johnson's testimony on Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee.
"He's wrong in every respect," Wasserman Schultz told host Kate Bolduan. "At no point during my tenure at the DNC was I contacted by the FBI, DHS or any government agency, or alerted or made aware that they believed that the Russians, an enemy state, was intruding on our network."
"I am a member of Congress that had the ability to sit down and be briefed in a classified setting. [Former FBI] Director [James] Comey said he wished he went to the top of the organization. We are one of the two national political parties.
"It is astounding, when they had a member of Congress leading that organization, no one felt it was more important when we had a foreign enemy intruding on the party's networks to do anything more than lob a phone call in to our tech support through our main switch board."
Bolduan pressed, "How can that be true? Secretary Johnson says the DNC rebuked the help offered. You are saying no one contacted you."
"Secretary Johnson is utterly misinformed. That is not accurate. … the FBI and other federal agencies did virtually nothing to make sure that when they were aware, at the point they were aware or concerned there was an intrusion on our network by the Russians, they did virtually nothing to sound the alarm bells to make us aware of that.
"They left the Russians on our network for more than — for almost a year before we discovered that they were there."
"I'm not pointing fingers at all," she later added. "There was certainly more that should have been done. More alarm bells and more action that should have been taken."
After Johnson's testimony Wednesday, Wasserman Schultz put out a statement saying essentially the same thing, the Washington Examiner reported.
"At no point during my tenure at the DNC did anyone from the FBI or any other government agency contact or communicate with me about Russian intrusion on the DNC network," her statement said, the Examiner reported.
Yet her statements conflict with those of former DNC vice chairwoman Donna Brazile, who admitted that federal officials had been in contact with them regarding hacking, The Daily Caller noted.
"I talked to the general counsel of the DNC today and he assures me that every step along the way when we were notified of these issues that we changed systems, changed procedures," Brazile told CNN last July 26, adding "at no time did we ignore the warning from the FBI or any other federal officials."