A declassified version of the report released later in the day read, we assess Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. Presidential election.
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– “Russia’s intelligence services conducted cyber operations against targets associated with the 2016 United States presidential election, including targets associated with both major USA political parties”.
Officials including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee about threats posed by Russian Federation and other countries.
“Every American should be alarmed by Russia’s attacks on our nation”, McCain said in his opening remarks. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer called the report “100% false”.
USA intelligence officials have also said the Russian cyber attacks aimed to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November 8 election. Well, look, I think that what is true is that the Russians meant to meddle and they meddled.
The findings were released just hours after Trump was briefed on them at his self-named tower in Manhattan. These sanctions apply to several Russian companies, the Federal Security Service and the Main Intelligence Agency of Russia’s General Staff.
The congressional hearing was overseen by Republican Senator John McCain, a vociferous Russian Federation critic.
The issue of Russia’s relations with western Europe became even more fraught on Saturday, when Sweden’s most respected foreign policy institute accused it of using underhand methods in an “information war”, including fake news, counterfeit documents, and other disinformation, to influence Swedish decision-making. “But we have never encountered such a direct campaign to interfere with the election process as we have seen in this case”.
The hearing comes as President-elect Donald Trump has loudly and repeatedly voiced skepticism that the Kremlin was orchestrating the campaign, directly clashing with the view of the US intelligence community and the committee’s chairman, Sen. President Barack Obama received a report on the matter on Thursday. It was not clear which of those details might have been included in the classified report. It’s stunning evidence that Russian Federation aimed to favor President-elect Donald Trump in the election and undermine his rival, Hillary Clinton, which should be a scary revelation for anyone who believes in the democratic process.
Trump was briefed earlier Friday on the report by top USA intelligence and law enforcement officials, and while he said he had “a constructive meeting”, he declined to publicly agree with their conclusions.
The words marked a significant shift for Trump, who has repeatedly brushed off the intelligence community’s claims that Russians were to blame for hacking the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta. “The Republican National Committee had strong defense!” he wrote on Twitter. “Also said the Russians did not give him the info!”
Asked what he knew that others might not, Trump said, “You’ll find out Tuesday or Wednesday”. “The media lies to make it look like I am against “intelligence” when in fact I am a big fan!”
Clapper said Assange had put American lives in danger and deserved no credibility. McCain and other lawmakers also blasted Assange.
The two senators will be introducing fresh sanctions on Russian Federation to “give President Trump an opportunity to make Russian Federation pay a price for interfering in our election so it will deter others in the future”, Graham said. Depending on those recommendations, “actions may be taken”, he said.
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“But I think that I underestimated the degree to which, in this new information age, it is possible for misinformation for cyber hacking and so forth to have an impact on our open societies, our open systems, to insinuate themselves into our democratic practices in ways that I think are accelerating”, he said in an interview with “Meet the Press” broadcast on Sunday.
