Goal Was Not Just to Undermine Confidence in American Electoral System
A secret CIA assessment shared only in an intelligence briefing with U.S. senators concludes that the Russian government intervened in the U.S. election to get Donald Trump elected, according to a just-published report in The Washington Post. The paper adds that Russia’s goal was greater than just undermining confidence in American elections and the electoral system.
“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,†said an unnamed senior U.S. official the Post reports was “briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators.” That official called the CIA’s assessment “the consensus view.”
Earlier Friday President Barack Obama ordered a complete review of the cyber attacks targeting the 2016 presidential election, and directed that it be complete before he leaves office. This CIA assessment is not that report.
“Intelligence agencies,” the Post notes, “have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton’s chances.”
From the start of his campaign Donald Trump has made it quite clear he holds a special fondness for Vladimir Putin, who he has praised not infrequently. Trump has fervently denied any Russian involvement in the hacking of the DNC or of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails, despite having been briefed by officials who told him the intelligence community is certain of Russia’s involvement.
“I don’t believe they interfered,†Trump told TIME magazine just this week, the Post notes. “The hacking, he said, ‘could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.'”
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