Evidence that the NSA did not provide the information to the FBI (and DHS)?
Both the DHS and the FBI issued warnings to states in August, 2016 about attempts to penetrate state voter registration databases. This was reported publicly at the time, and it is not unlikely that the information that triggered the warnings came partly from the NSA.
That the NSA snoops on the GRU whenever and however it can is certain. Under FISA section 702, this allows them to take note of such things as identifiable spear phishing by presumed GRU agents directed at US targets. Other parts of the US Code allow them to report such activities to the FBI, as may well have happened in late 2015, when the FBI contacted the Democratic National Committee to tell them they were hacked. Whether that constitutes snooping on the US targets is a matter of definition, but it is plainly legal at present, as well as very likely acceptable to many of the victims of such attacks.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
