"Those who expressed negative views stated that running elections in this country was the sovereign and exclusive responsibility of the states, and they did not want federal intrusion, a federal takeover, or federal regulation of that process", Johnson's testimony states.
"I therefore urge you to work closely with state and local election officials to disclose publicly which states were targeted, to ensure that they are fully aware of the threat, and to make certain that their cyber defenses are able to neutralize this danger".
Besides targeting voting systems for vulnerabilities, US intelligence committees have said Russian hackers hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Johnson said he was disappointed the DNC would not accept Homeland Security's help in finding its cybervulnerabilities. "Homeland Security does not engage in election recounts", he said, under questioning from Representative Jackie Speier, a California Democrat. "I recall very clearly that I was not pleased we were not in there helping them patch this vulnerability", Johnson told lawmakers, adding that the agency does not have the authority to go into a private company with a warrant to fix its IT problems.
In early January, Johnson designated USA election systems such as polling places and voter registration databases as critical infrastructure.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia says DHS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have confirmed intrusions into voter registration databases in Arizona and IL.
"Prosecution of leakers under the Espionage Act poses serious First Amendment problems", said Ladin, "because courts don't even consider whether disclosures reveal illegal government actions or are otherwise in the public interest".
"The big issue, and let's not lose sight of it, the big issue is the cyber intrusions on our democracy previous year and how to prevent that from happening in the future for the sake of our democracy", Johnson added.
During opening remarks, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., said "at a minimal cost, Russian Federation sowed chaos in our political system and undermined faith in our democratic process".
"Based on everything I know, that is correct", Johnson told Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, "I know of no evidence that, through cyber-intrusions, votes were altered or suppressed in some way".
The day after White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters he was unable to say whether President Trump accepted that the Russians had hacked the 2016 election, Johnson made it clear there was no doubt in his mind what had happened.
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Bill Priestap, assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division, noted the finding of US intelligence agencies that Russia's actions previous year were aimed at hurting Democrat Hillary Clinton and ultimately at helping Trump win.
"I believe the Russians absolutely will continue to try to conduct influence operations in the USA, which will include cyber operations", said Bill Priestap, assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division.
She refused to respond to pointed questions by the panel's top Democrat, Mark Warner, about how many states had voter data stolen by hackers.
But Liles said the intelligence community concluded that a variety of factors "made it likely that cyber manipulation of the USA election system created to change the outcome of the United States election would be detected".
A second DHS official, Acting Director of Undersecretary, National Protection and Programs Directorate Jeanette Manfra, backed up Liles' testimony.
"I just fundamentally disagree", he said.
"I understand the notion of victimization, but I do not believe our country is made safer by holding this information back from the American public", Warner said. "I've seen, open source, I think 39 states and I'm not in a position to agree or disagree".
Trump acknowledged on Friday he was under investigation in the probe of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 race and possible collusion by his campaign, and seemed to assail the Justice Department official overseeing the inquiry.
Rubio told a story about seeing a fake story that said President Obama had "banned" the Pledge of Allegiance - and getting text messages asking him about it.
"They have less people to carry out their activities", Priestap said.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is investigating the American intelligence community's assessment that Russian Federation sought to influence the American election, and probing allegations of possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and Moscow.
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