[JURIST] The U.S. Senate [official website] on Thursday held its first hearing [materials] on Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Chairman Richard Burr [official website] (R-NC) and Vice-Chairman Mark Warner [official website] of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [official website] led the public hearing. During the hearing, Senator Marco Rubio [official website] revealed [Washington Post report] that his campaign had also been the target of Russian hackers as recently as Wednesday. Academics who focus in cyber security presented at the hearing and explained the history of Russian cyber attacks and said the motive behind them was for Russia to remain a global superpower. Warner said of the committee, “We simply must — and we will — get this right…. The chairman [Burr] and I agree it is vitally important that we do this as a credible, bipartisan and transparent manner as possible.”

Allegations of Russian connections have been a problem for US President Donald Trump’s administration in the early stages of his presidency. Last week the FBI director confirmed [JURIST report] investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Earlier this month US Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from probes into Russian interference after it was reveal that he had met with Russian officials [JURIST reports] during the campaign. In January a group of US Senators introduced legislation seeking to make mandatory sanctions against Russia [JURIST reports] in December by then-president Barack Obama.