House Democrats plead for Paul Ryan's help in obtaining Russia election-hacking documents

Six congressional Democrats have penned a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), pleading for his help in obtaining documents regarding Russia's interference in state election systems in 2016.

The letter, sent Tuesday, asked Ryan to appeal to President Trump's administration to release records related to the 21 states where the Department of Homeland Security found that Russia had attacked "election-related systems" leading up to the presidential election. The DHS said there was no evidence that votes were altered as a result of the hack.

The group of House Democrats — all ranking members of congressional committees — said that they were turning to Ryan to get the documents because the Trump administration had blocked all their other efforts.

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"It is inexcusable the Republican leaders in Congress have done so little to investigate — or address — Russian-backed attacks on our states, despite the fact that we have been asking repeatedly for congressional action on this important matter," reads the letter. "Unfortunately we are being blocked by Trump administration officials who refuse to produce these documents to Congress and by Republican chairmen who refuse to demand them. These actions create the unfortunate perception that House Republicans do not want to obtain these documents relating to the Russian attacks against state election systems."

Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Robert Brady (D-Pa.), Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) asked Ryan to personally intervene so that Congress could evaluate the Russian attack and determine how to prevent future interference. They said that the Trump administration had provided them with 50 pages of documents related to the attack, but said they were unclassified records that didn't provide any new information.