Trump accepts conclusions of intel agencies: aide

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump accepts the conclusion by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia tried to interfere in the election that will soon put him in the White House, a top aide said Sunday.

“He’s not denying that entities in Russia were behind this particular campaign,” incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus said.

That’s more than Trump himself has said, and he hasn’t responded to calls for Washington to retaliate. Those are decisions, aides said, that Trump will make after he becomes president on Jan. 20, though he and some of his Cabinet nominees could face sharp questioning this week.

Intelligence officials allege that Moscow directed a series of hacks in order to help Trump win the White House in the race against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump has expressed skepticism about Russia’s role and declined to say whether he agrees that the meddling was done on his behalf.

“I think he accepts the findings,” Priebus said.

On Friday, U.S. intelligence officials briefed the president-elect on their conclusions that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf. Priebus attended along with Trump.

In an interview with The Associated Press after the briefing, Trump said he “learned a lot” from his discussions with intelligence officials, but he declined to say whether he accepted their assertion about Russia’s motives. Trump has said he warm relations with Russia are a good thing and that only “stupid” people would disagree.

“My suspicion is these hopes will be dashed pretty quickly,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. “The Russians are clearly a big adversary. And they demonstrated it by trying to mess around in our election.

An unclassified version of the report directly tied Russian President Vladimir Putin to election meddling and said that Moscow had a “clear preference” for Trump over Clinton. Trump and his allies have bristled at any implication that the meddling helped him win the election. He won the Electoral College vote with 306 votes, topping the 270 votes required to become president.

Accepting those findings would be a positive step, but not enough, said GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is calling for more penalties against Russia.

“He’s going to be the defender of the free world here pretty soon,” said Graham, a frequent Trump critic.

“All I’m asking him is to acknowledge that Russia interfered, and push back. It could be Iran next time. It could be China.”