WASHINGTON – Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told a House congressional panel Wednesday that he wasn’t informed for months that Russian hackers had broken into computer systems at the Democratic National Committee, which blithely shrugged off help from his agency.

“Hindsight is 2020,” Johnson told the House Intelligence Committee.

“In retrospect … I should have bought a sleeping bag and camped out in front of the DNC in late summer.”

Johnson said he was “not happy” to learn several months after the crime occurred that the DNC had been hacked and he expressed “disappointment” the DNC rejected the help of Homeland Security professionals to help identify intruders and patch vulnerabilities in its IT system.

“The answer [from the DNC], to the best of my recollection, was not reassuring: the FBI and the DNC had been in contact with each other months before about the intrusion, and the DNC did not feel it needed DHS’s assistance at that time,” Johnson said.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) argued even if Johnson had camped out at the DNC it wouldn’t have made “any difference” since it wasn’t cooperating with the feds.

“The DNC never turned the server over to law enforcement,” Gowdy said.

“Why would the victim of a crime not turn over a server to the intelligence community or to law enforcement?”

“I’m not going to argue with you, sir,” Johnson responded.

Meanwhile, a top Homeland Security official told a Senate panel that Russia tried to hack 21 state election systems.

“We have evidence of election-related systems in 21 states that were targeted,” Acting DHS Undersecretary Jeanette Manfra told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The appearance by Johnson and top DHS officials Wednesday before the House and Senate intelligence marks a return to the original intent of the investigations: finding out what Russia did to meddle in the US election.

Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin “pure and simple” directed cyberattacks at the US to try to influence the election but didn’t change any results.

“In 2016 the Russian government, at the direction of Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyberattacks on our nation for the purpose of influencing our election – plain and simple,” Johnson, a President Obama appointee, said.

“Now, the key question for the President and Congress is: what are we going to do to protect the American people and their democracy from this kind of thing in the future?”

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) called the Russian intrusion an “act of war” and wondered why the Obama Administration didn’t repeatedly sound the alarm before voters went to the polls in November 2016.

Johnson said the administration was cautious because it might appear to be interfering in the electoral process.

Ultimately, Johnson and the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper released a three-paragraph statement Oct. 7, 2016, that the Russian government was responsible for the election hacks.

Johnson said he regrets the revelation didn’t generate much public attention.

“Frankly, because the same day the press was focused on the release of the Access Hollywood video,” Johnson said of the 2005 tape where Trump bragged of grabbing women by their genitals. Therefore the Russian hacking news was relegated to “below the fold.”