A comprehensive report of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has vanished from its original posting on the U.S. Senate website, casting uncertainty regarding the transparency of the Trump administration.
The disappearing act was initially reported by Reddit users of r/craftofintelligence, who noted that a click on the link to the bipartisan committee’s Russia investigation at intelligence.senate.gov now results in a “no results found” response. What was previously a legendary repository of one of the most significant political investigations in recent American history had seemingly disappeared overnight.
The Missing Report of the Russian Election
The one they’re assessing is not any report, it’s the culmination of a wide-ranging investigation conducted by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that lasted over 15 open hearings, over 200 witness interviews, and nearly 400,000 documents. Released between July of 2019 and August of 2020, the five-volume report detailed extensive Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 election that brought Donald Trump to office.
The committee report was particularly noteworthy in that it was prepared by a team of senators who were bipartisan. Their investigation found that the Russian government had been engaged in “extensive activity” as part of an effort to discredit the Trump election, though they could not determine that any votes were changed or voting equipment hacked.
Where Did It Go?
Before we all panic over government censorship, some good news. The report hasn’t been removed, it has just been moved.
Newsweek’s investigation found that all five volumes are still available on the Senate website, just under a different URL in another section. The documents are also accessible through GovInfo, the official repository for U.S. government information.
Still, the relocation raises questions about why the original, well-known link was broken without any clear redirection or explanation to users.
Part of a Broader Pattern
This isn’t an isolated incident. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, numerous government webpages have gone offline or been reorganized. Many of these changes appear connected to the administration’s campaign against what it calls “gender ideology” and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
The White House has attributed some of these website changes to routine administrative updates during the transition from the Biden administration. When the Office of Gun Violence Prevention webpage went offline, officials explained it as part of website tweaking. Similarly, missing presidential biographies were chalked up to standard administration changes.
However, watchdog groups aren’t buying these explanations entirely. Faith Williams from the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight called the removal of government pages “extremely troubling” and described it as a “major blow to government transparency.”
A Look at the Public Reactions
The Reddit community that first noticed the missing report had plenty to say about the situation. Users questioned whether there were legal protections against removing such important government documents, with one posting, “aren’t there laws against that happening?”
The timing feels particularly significant given White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s recent claim that “The Trump White House is the most transparent in history.” Critics might find that statement hard to reconcile with important government documents becoming harder to find.
While the Russia investigation report is still accessible to those who know where to look, its disappearance from its original location highlights ongoing tensions about government transparency and information accessibility. The fact that it took Reddit users to notice and investigate the missing link suggests that such changes might be happening more frequently than the public realizes.
For now, anyone looking for the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation can still find it—they just need to know where to look. Whether this represents routine website maintenance or something more concerning about information access remains an open question as the Trump administration continues its overhaul of government digital presence.
