The embarrassing leak of over 20,000 emails from Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer servers was orchestrated by Russian intelligence agencies in order to boost Donald Trump’s chances at winning the presidency, Hillary Clinton’s campaign insisted on Monday.
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Wikileaks posted 19,000 emails Friday, some of which suggested the Democratic National Committee, which is supposed to remain neutral during the primary season, favoured Clinton over rival Bernie Sanders.
While a series of experts pointed the finger at Moscow, others urged caution.
“(If) Russia was behind this hack, this would be a new watershed, ” said Jake Sullivan.
The circumstantial case is strong enough that the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Monday that it is investigating “a cyber intrusion involving the DNC”.
The FBI confirmed on Monday that it was investigating the attack and said the perpetrators would be “held accountable”.
Obama administration officials deferred questions on the investigation to the FBI.
NBC News’ Richard Engel added this afternoon that three leading USA cyber-security companies told NBC News “they have a high degree of confidence” that Russian Federation was responsible for the leaking of the DNC materials.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, however, dismissed claims. He spoke ahead of a meeting Tuesday with U.S. counterpart John Kerry in Laos.
“I don’t want to use four-letter words”, was Lavrov’s only response to reporters when asked whether Russian Federation was responsible for the email hack. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the committee was briefed by the intelligence community on the hack.
Is Russian President Vladimir Putin behind a damaging email leak?
REUTERS picIf the Russian government is behind the theft and release of embarrassing emails from the Democratic Party, as USA officials have suggested, it may reflect less a love of Donald Trump or enmity for Hillary Clinton than a desire to discredit the US political system.
Hillary’s campaign manager Robby Mook cited the experts saying that Russian state actors provided the emails to hackers to help Trump, the CNN reported. Recently, Trump made headlines when he said that as president, he might not back North Atlantic Treaty Organisation nations if they were attacked by Russian Federation – a foreign policy move which would essentially give Putin a free hand in threatening former Soviet satellites.
The question of Russian involvement has some precedent.
CrowdStrike, a cyber firm that helped clean up the breach, said last month it had identified two hacking groups that infiltrated the DNC and that both were believed to be working on behalf of two competing arms of the Russian government.
Some security investigators had already blamed Russian Federation for the attacks, and that charge has now been echoed by the DNC and by Clinton’s campaign manager.
“The operation, with its manipulative traits, fits well into the wider framework of Russia’s evolving military doctrine, known as New Generation Warfare”, he wrote on news website Motherboard.
“This is the dream situation for the Kremlin”, said Hill, who previously worked as the National Intelligence Council’s top Russian Federation expert.
According to Isikoff’s reporting, “there are also signs that the hackers have penetrated the personal email of some Clinton campaign staffers”.
Trump sought to use the internal Democratic rift to his advantage.
Trump said he would team up with the ruthless Kremlin leader to knock “the hell out of” the depraved terror group.
“Time and again, we’re seeing Russian Federation push back at what Putin considers Russia’s mortal enemies”, said the other official.
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Clinton just can’t stay out of hot water when it comes to email.
