Two top Democratic senators warned President Barack Obama a week before the November election about Russian meddling and called for a "direct and proportionate" response against Moscow, according to documents released Friday.
"Such attacks cannot be tolerated and the United States must take immediate measures to ensure that those responsible are held to account," Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Ben Cardin of Maryland said in their letter, dated Nov. 1, 2016.
The presidential election was held Nov. 8.
"The seminal event in a functioning democracy is an election, and the international implications of the results of the U.S. election are far reaching," the senators said, The Hill reported. "Russia's actions threaten to undermine our process."
Feinstein and Cardin then put forth several remedies to Obama, including expanding sanctions and freezing the assets of anyone involved in the cyberattacks.
The letter was released by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, the Hill reported.
Included was a Dec. 7 response from Julia Frifield, the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs at the State Department, the Hill reported.
She told the senators the White House "will not tolerate attempts to interfere with the U.S. Democratic process, and we will take action to protect our interests, including in cyberspace, and we will do so at a time and place of our choosing."
On Dec. 29, the Obama administration expelled 35 Russian diplomats and closed two compounds in the U.S. The president also announced targeted sanctions against Moscow.
The document release followed a report Friday by The Washington Post saying those "modest" remedies resulted from months on wrangling within the Obama White House after the CIA presented definitive evidence of Russian hacking and other activities.
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