Report: Officials ID Small Florida County Russians Breached In 2016

MIAMI (CNN) - A small county in the Florida panhandle was one of the two counties in the state whose voter registration database was hacked by Russia during the 2016 election, according to The Washington Post.

Two US officials told the newspaper that the database of Washington County in Florida, with a population of about 25,000, was breached by Russian government hackers in 2016. The officials revealed the information to the Post under the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Washington County has declined to comment to CNN.

The public first learned of the hacking from special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which stated that "at least one" Florida county had been breached.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was briefed last Friday, revealed Tuesday that a second county in the state was hacked during the election.

The governor said there was no manipulation of the data and that the intrusion "had no effect" on Florida vote totals.

DeSantis's office told CNN that the governor signed a nondisclosure agreement preventing him from naming the two counties.

The Florida congressional delegation also received a classified briefing from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI on Thursday. Several members of Congress from both parties objected to the FBI restricting their right to publicly release the information.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Democrat, called it "unacceptable" for the public not to know the names of the counties.

"We are working hard to continue to demand that the FBI reconsider their classification, so that we can provide more information to the public," Murphy told reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill. "The public needs to know which counties were hacked and what steps are being taken to hold the bad actors accountable."

The-CNN-Wire
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