REUTERS-Russian President
Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to help Republican Donald Trump's electoral
chances by discrediting Democrat Hillary Clinton in the
2016 presidential
campaign, U.S. intelligence agencies said in an assessment.
Russia's objectives
were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate former
Secretary of State Clinton, make it harder for her to win and harm her
presidency if she did, an unclassified report released on Friday by the top
U.S. intelligence agency said.
"We assess
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at
the U.S. presidential election," the report said. "We further assess
Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for
President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments."
Russian authorities,
which have previously denied interfering in the U.S. elections, offered no
immediate comment on the report on Saturday, and the reaction of the country's
media was low-key.
The report, although
it omitted classified details, was the U.S. government's starkest public
description of what it says was an unprecedented Russian campaign to manipulate
the American body politic.
Reports of Russian
interference in the already divisive election have roiled Washington, even as
the U.S. Congress on Friday certified Trump’s victory in the Electoral College.
Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots.
The report's
conclusions, though lacking details of how the Russians may have relayed the
material to WikiLeaks and others, will give ammunition to Democrats and Trump's
fellow Republicans in Congress who want tougher action against Russia, setting
the scene for a potential showdown with Trump.
It could also give a
boost to members of Congress seeking an independent, bipartisan investigation
of Russian hacking.
Trump, who has
developed a rocky relationship with U.S. spy agencies and at times disparaged
their work, defended the legitimacy of his election victory after receiving a
nearly two-hour briefing Friday on the report.
The report neither
assessed "the impact Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016
election" nor did it provide details on the evidence underpinning its
conclusions, a fact likely to keep alive the controversy over what Moscow may
have done.
In Moscow, state TV
Channel One briefly covered the report, focusing on Trump's comments that the
interference had no impact on the outcome of the election.
The broadcaster,
which led its news program on Orthodox Christmas celebrations and unusually low
temperatures in the Russian capital, also said the arguments used in the U.S.
report had been widely mocked by Internet users.
RUSSIAN MILITARY
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
The report said U.S.
intelligence agencies believe Russian military intelligence, the GRU, used
intermediaries such as WikiLeaks, DCLeaks.com and the Guccifer 2.0
"persona" to release emails that it had acquired from the Democratic
National Committee (DNC) and top Democrats as part of the effort.
The release of the
emails led to embarrassing media coverage for Clinton and triggered the
resignation of the DNC's chief.
WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange has said he did not receive emails stolen from the DNC and top
Clinton aide John Podesta from "a state party." However, Assange did
not rule out the possibility that he got the material from a third party.
Russian actors were
not found to have targeted U.S. systems that are involved in tallying votes,
the report said. The report was produced by the Central Intelligence Agency,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency.
Also on Friday, the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security designated U.S. election infrastructure as
critical infrastructure, widening the options the government has to protect
voting machines from cyber attacks.
While the report
found Russia had conducted cyber attacks on both the Democratic and the
Republican parties, it made clear that the primary aims were to harm Clinton
whether or not she won the election and evolved over time.
"When it
appeared to Moscow that Secretary Clinton was likely to win the election, the
Russian influence campaign began to focus more on undermining her future
presidency," it said.
"We also assess
Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s
election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly
contrasting her unfavorably to him," it said. The CIA and FBI had high
confidence in this judgment and NSA moderate confidence, the report said.
Neither the Russian
Embassy in Washington, nor Clinton aides immediately responded to requests for
comment.
The report suggested
Putin was motivated in part by personal animus toward Clinton.
"Putin most
likely wanted to discredit Secretary Clinton because he has publicly blamed her
since 2011 for inciting mass protests against his regime in late 2011 and early
2012, and because he holds a grudge for comments he almost certainly saw as
disparaging him," it said.
'TROUBLING CHAPTER
IN ONGOING STORY'
In a statement after
his intelligence briefing, Trump did not squarely address whether he was told
of the agencies' belief Russia carried out the hacking.
Instead, he said:
"Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are
consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our
governmental institutions, businesses and organizations" including the
DNC.
"There was
absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that
there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines," Trump said.
The businessman, who
is to be inaugurated as president on Jan. 20, also said he would appoint a team
to give him a plan within 90 days of taking office on how to prevent cyber
attacks but suggested that he would keep their recommendations secret.
The report did not
reveal how the intelligence agencies collected the evidence underpinning their
conclusions or the evidence itself, including the means by which Russian
military intelligence "relayed" the materials filched from the DNC
and other hacking targets to WikiLeaks and others, omissions likely to leave
the report open to criticism.
Representative Adam
Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence who was briefed on the report on Friday, took issue with Trump's comments.
"The
President-Elect’s statement that the Russian hacking had 'absolutely no effect
on the outcome of the election' is not supported by the briefing, report, or
common sense," Schiff said.
"It is one
thing to say that there was no tampering with vote tallying - which is true -
it is another thing to say that the daily dumping of documents disparaging to
... Clinton that was made possible by Russian cyber operations had no effect on
the campaigns," he said. "The consequence of these disclosures was
hugely beneficial to the President-Elect and damaging to the Clinton campaign,
just as the Russians intended."
Senate Intelligence
Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said his panel
would continue to compile "facts surrounding Russia's active
measures," adding: "This is a troubling chapter in an ongoing
story."
REUTERS
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