OSHKOSH—On Thursday, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Stefanie Tompkins, Director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), regarding the agency’s involvement with Georgia Tech researchers potentially connected to researching attribution of the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  A DARPA spokesman recently told the media, “to the best of our knowledge, no DARPA-funded researchers investigated the DNC hack.” However, recent reports revealed that Georgia Tech researchers created “white papers” relating to the DNC hack for DARPA and created documents relating to Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation.

Sens. Johnson and Grassley are demanding DARPA provide the alleged “white papers” reportedly titled: “Whitepaper on DNC attack attribution”; “Analysis of attacks of EOP (Executive Office of the President) networks”; “Whitepaper for DOJ on APT-29 related hackers, crypto coin transactions, and analysis that includes Yota-related domains”; and “‘Mueller List’ – list of domains and indicators related to APT-28”.

“The DNC hack occurred during the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, which was marked by claims of meddling by foreign actors.  Some of those claims have since been confirmed to be disinformation efforts by operatives from the Democratic campaign.  As details continue to emerge, the public is rightly concerned about the extent to which various federal agencies investigated, validated, dispelled or relied on these claims.  Indeed, the credibility of some agencies has been called into question, and the public deserves a full accounting of federal officials’ involvement in these activities.  Preserving or restoring public trust in these agencies requires transparency, candor and, when appropriate, corrective action,” the senators wrote.

Sens. Johnson and Grassley requested a response from DARPA on this matter no later than May 13, 2022.

Read more about the letter in Washington Examiner.

The full text of the letter can be found here and below.

April 28, 2022

Dr. Stefanie Tompkins

Director

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Department of Defense

Dear Director Tompkins:

              Recent reports have raised questions about whether an individual doing research on behalf of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) investigated the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).[1] 

              According to press reports, Dr. Manos Antonakakis, a Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) professor who had worked on a DARPA program, was interviewed by Special Counsel John Durham’s office.  Dr. Antonakakis summarized a portion of that interview in a July 2021 e-mail where he stated that a prosecutor with Durham’s office asked him, “Do you believe that DARPA should be instructing you to investigate the origins of a hacker (Guccifer_2.0) that hacked a political entity (DNC)?”[2]  In that same e-mail, Dr. Antonakakis wrote that he said to the prosecutor, “this is a question for DARPA’s director, and not for me to answer.”[3]  Since this e-mail became public, a DARPA spokesman told the media, “to the best of our knowledge, no DARPA-funded researchers investigated” the DNC hack.[4]

              A recent press report revealed that Georgia Tech researchers drafted “white papers” relating to the DNC hack for DARPA.[5]  Documents indicate that these researchers generated at least four documents with two of them “relat[ing] to the DNC hack.”[6] 

The DNC hack occurred during the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, which was marked by claims of meddling by foreign actors.  Some of those claims have since been confirmed to be disinformation efforts by operatives from the Democratic campaign.  As details continue to emerge, the public is rightly concerned about the extent to which various federal agencies investigated, validated, dispelled or relied on these claims.  Indeed, the credibility of some agencies has been called into question, and the public deserves a full accounting of federal officials’ involvement in these activities.  Preserving or restoring public trust in these agencies requires transparency, candor and, when appropriate, corrective action.

Our staff previously requested records from your agency, for which your staff requested an official letter.  In an effort to better understand DARPA’s work with Georgia Tech, we request the following by no later than May 13, 2022:

1. From January 1, 2016 to the present, please provide all contracts between DARPA and Georgia Tech. 
2. All records[7] between and among employees of DARPA and Georgia Tech including but not limited to the alleged “white papers” entitled:

• “Whitepaper on DNC attack attribution”;
• “Analysis of attacks of EOP (Executive Office of the President) networks”;
• “Whitepaper for DOJ on APT-29 related hackers, crypto coin transactions, and analysis that includes Yota-related domains”; and
• “‘Mueller List’ – list of domains and indicators related to APT-28”.[8]

              Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

###