--- title: Hillary Clinton Aide: Brief Electoral College on Russia Role description: John Podesta says the Electoral College should be brought up to speed on what Russia did to help elect Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/4598168/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-electoral-college-russia/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-12T18:36:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-24T06:56:59.497Z article:section: Politics og:title: Clinton's Camp Wants the Electoral College to Get an Intelligence Briefing og:description: Amid questions about Russia's influence in Donald Trump's win og:url: https://time.com/4598168/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-electoral-college-russia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02fe820065d33c78/6988b298bc6cfc5ad23df8f3/john-podesta.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton Hosts Election Night Party og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clinton's Camp Wants the Electoral College to Get an Intelligence Briefing twitter:description: Amid questions about Russia's influence in Donald Trump's win twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02fe820065d33c78/6988b298bc6cfc5ad23df8f3/john-podesta.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton's Camp Wants the Electoral College to Get an Intelligence Briefing ## Video: This Video Is No Longer Available [Watch (HLS stream): This Video Is No Longer Available](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8) (0:10)  _Published 2026-06-23. Amid questions about Russia's influence in Donald Trump's win_  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Dec 12, 2016 6:36 PM UTC  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Dec 12, 2016 6:36 PM UTC [Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-hillary-clinton-runner-up/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod)’s campaign chairman is joining calls to have [U.S. intelligence officials](http://time.com/4597457/the-downside-of-donald-trumps-fight-with-the-intelligence-community/?xid=homepage) share with [the Electoral College](http://time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slavery/) electors just what they know about [foreign governments’ efforts to shape the presidential race](http://time.com/4597694/donald-trump-picks-perilous-russia-intelligence-fight/?xid=homepage). [John Podesta](http://time.com/4308369/hillary-clinton-john-podesta/) on Monday released a statement saying the electors, who will meet to formally elect the next President of the United States this month, should know what American spies know, including just how much Russia put its thumb on the scale to help Donald Trump win. Podesta’s email account was among those hacked and its contents published on WikiLeaks. “Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed,” Podesta said. So far, 10 electors have asked for an intelligence briefing before the Electoral College meets on Dec. 19\. Trump won 306 electoral votes, clearing the 270 he needed to prevail. Some liberals are clinging to the hopes that the electors would choose to set aside the results of November’s presidential race. Such a move has never been taken before in modern American history. Then again, an American election has never been a [battlefield](http://time.com/4597386/bipartisan-senators-probe-russia-interference/) for foreign governments, either. “Trump’s willingness to disregard conclusions made by the intelligence community and his continuing defense of Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin demand close scrutiny and deliberation from the Electoral College,” the electors wrote to the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Among them: the daughter of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. Trump and his team have [maintained](http://time.com/4597694/donald-trump-picks-perilous-russia-intelligence-fight/) that it’s not clear Russia [interfered](http://time.com/4597693/donald-trump-russia-election-hacking/) with the election. On Monday, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina met with Trump at his Manhattan offices and told reporters after that they discussed both China and Russia as aggressors. Trump a day earlier [said](http://time.com/4597457/the-downside-of-donald-trumps-fight-with-the-intelligence-community/) no one really knows if it was Russia behind the hacks of Podesta and the Democratic National Committee, and his campaign glibly pointed out that U.S. intelligence officials also got wrong their assessment of Iraq’s weapons program ahead of the American invasion. But the intelligence professionals have been less than subtle in naming and shaming Russia for publishing embarrassing information about Democrats. And Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, [told](http://time.com/4597792/mitch-mcconnell-strongly-condemns-russian-interference-in-2016-election/) reporters on Monday that “the Russians are not our friends” as he announced his chamber’s spy panel would investigate foreign hands in the ballot box. If Clapper gives the electors a briefing on what the intelligence community knows — and does not know — about Russia’s role in the election, it would trigger allegations that spies are trying to undermine an election already ripe with interference from government arms, most notably the FBI’s decision to revisit Clinton’s email practices just day before the election. With confidence in government already at bottom-of-the-barrel levels, starting Trump’s presidency like this would only erode it further — especially with so many of his supporters already doubting the intelligence community’s findings. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4598168/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-electoral-college-russia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4598168/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-electoral-college-russia/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton's Camp Wants the Electoral College to Get an Intelligence Briefing","datePublished":"2016-12-12T18:36:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:56:59.497Z","description":"Amid questions about Russia's influence in Donald Trump's win","url":"https://time.com/4598168/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-electoral-college-russia/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02fe820065d33c78/6988b298bc6cfc5ad23df8f3/john-podesta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Elliott","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02fe820065d33c78/6988b298bc6cfc5ad23df8f3/john-podesta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton Hosts Election Night Party","caption":"Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton Hosts Election Night Party","creditText":"John Taggart—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4598168/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-electoral-college-russia/","name":"Hillary Clinton's Camp Wants the Electoral College to Get an Intelligence Briefing"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"Amid questions about Russia's influence in Donald Trump's win","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4598168/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-electoral-college-russia/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4598168/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-electoral-college-russia/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```