The Obama administration halted work on a robust set of countermeasures to Russian government operations that aimed to disrupt American democracy in the runup to the 2016 presidential election, according to two officials who led the development of those countermeasures.
When top officials in the administration spread allegations of a large Russian influence operation, some of their subordinates were authorized to develop deterrent actions, including aggressive cyber operations. But when they were to begin those operations, the actions were shelved, the officials testified before Congress on June 20.
