REUTERS - The overseers of the U.S.
intelligence community have not embraced a CIA assessment that Russian cyber attacks
were aimed at helping Republican
President-elect Donald Trump win the 2016
election, three American officials said on Monday.
While the Office of the Director
of National Intelligence (ODNI) does not dispute the CIA's analysis of Russian
hacking operations, it has not endorsed their assessment because of a lack of
conclusive evidence that Moscow intended to boost Trump over Democratic
opponent Hillary Clinton, said the officials, who declined to be named.
The position of the ODNI, which
oversees the 17 agency-strong U.S. intelligence community, could give Trump
fresh ammunition to dispute the CIA assessment, which he rejected as
"ridiculous" in weekend remarks, and press his assertion that no
evidence implicates Russia in the cyber attacks.
Trump's rejection of the CIA's
judgment marks the latest in a string of disputes over Russia's international
conduct that have erupted between the president-elect and the intelligence
community he will soon command.
An ODNI spokesman declined to
comment on the issue.
"ODNI is not arguing that
the agency (CIA) is wrong, only that they can't prove intent," said one of
the three U.S. officials. "Of course they can't, absent agents in on the
decision-making in Moscow."
The Federal Bureau of
Investigation, whose evidentiary standards require it to make cases that can
stand up in court, declined to accept the CIA's analysis - a deductive
assessment of the available intelligence - for the same reason, the three
officials said.
The ODNI, headed by James
Clapper, was established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the
recommendation of the commission that investigated the attacks. The commission,
which identified major intelligence failures, recommended the office's creation
to improve coordination among U.S. intelligence agencies.
In October, the U.S. government
formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against American
political organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. Democratic
President Barack Obama has said he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin
about consequences for the attacks.
Reports of the assessment by the
CIA, which has not publicly disclosed its findings, have prompted congressional
leaders to call for an investigation.
Obama last week ordered
intelligence agencies to review the cyber attacks and foreign intervention in
the presidential election and to deliver a report before he turns power over to
Trump on Jan. 20.
The CIA assessed after the
election that the attacks on political organizations were aimed at swaying the
vote for Trump because the targeting of Republican organizations diminished
toward the end of the summer and focused on Democratic groups, a senior U.S.
official told Reuters on Friday.
Moreover, only materials filched
from Democratic groups - such as emails stolen from John Podesta, the Clinton
campaign chairman - were made public via WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy
organization, and other outlets, U.S. officials said.
"THIN REED"
The CIA conclusion was a
"judgment based on the fact that Russian entities hacked both Democrats
and Republicans and only the Democratic information was leaked," one of
the three officials said on Monday.
"(It was) a thin reed upon
which to base an analytical judgment," the official added.
Republican Senator John McCain
said on Monday there was "no information" that Russian hacking of
American political organizations was aimed at swaying the outcome of the
election.
"It's obvious that the
Russians hacked into our campaigns," McCain said. "But there is no
information that they were intending to affect the outcome of our election and
that's why we need a congressional investigation," he told Reuters.
McCain questioned an assertion
made on Sunday by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, tapped
by Trump to be his White House chief of staff, that there were no hacks of
computers belonging to Republican organizations.
"Actually, because Mr.
Priebus said that doesn't mean it's true," said McCain. "We need a
thorough investigation of it, whether both (Democratic and Republican
organizations) were hacked into, what the Russian intentions were. We cannot
draw a conclusion yet. That's why we need a thorough investigation."
In an angry letter sent to ODNI
chief Clapper on Monday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said
he was “dismayed” that the top U.S. intelligence official had not informed the
panel of the CIA’s analysis and the difference between its judgment and the
FBI’s assessment.
Noting that Clapper in November
testified that intelligence agencies lacked strong evidence linking Russian cyber
attacks to the WikiLeaks disclosures, Nunes asked that Clapper, together with
CIA and FBI counterparts, brief the panel by Friday on the latest intelligence
assessment of Russian hacking during the election campaign.
REUTERS
0 Comments