Report says Putin ordered meddling in election
WASHINGTON Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a hidden campaign to influence America’s presidential election in favour of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, United States intelligence agencies have declared, in the government’s first formal allegation supporting sensational claims that Trump and his supporters have staunchly resisted.
The intelligence report released yesterday, an unclassified version of a more detailed classified account given earlier to Trump, the White House and congressional leaders, withheld the government’s evidence to back up its assertions.
Trump, in a brief interview, said he had ‘‘learned a lot’’ from his discussions with intelligence officials, whom he has challenged since winning the election, but declined to say whether he accepted their assertion that Russia had meddled in the election on his behalf.
Trump would not detail what evidence he was presented with, saying only that he learned ‘‘a lot REUTERS of confidential things’’.
The unclassified version of the intelligence report was the most detailed public account to date of Russian efforts to interfere with the US political process, with actions that included hacking the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and individual Democrats like Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. REUTERS
Russia also used state-funded propaganda and paid ‘‘trolls’’ to make nasty comments on social media services, the report said.
There was no suggestion that Russia affected vote counting or tampered with voting machines.
President Barack Obama requested the report last month.
The report, for the first time, explicitly tied Putin to the hackings, called it the ‘‘boldest effort yet’’ to influence a US election, and said the Russian government provided emails to WikiLeaks – something the website’s founder, Julian Assange, has repeatedly denied.
The intelligence agencies also said Russia would continue to try to influence future events in the US and worldwide, particularly among America’s allies.
Since Election Day, the intelligence agencies said, Russia had launched a ‘‘spear-fishing’’ campaign to try to trick people into revealing their email passwords, targeting US government employees and think tanks that specialise in national security, defence and foreign policy.
The report lacked details about how the US learned what it said it knows, such as any intercepted conversations or electronic messages among Russian leaders, including Putin, or about specific hacking techniques or digital tools the US may have traced back to Russia during its investigations.
The unclassified report said the Russian effort was both politi- cal and personal. ‘‘Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton and harm her electability and potential presidency,’’ it said.
‘‘We further assess [that] Putin and the Russian government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.’’
Putin most likely wanted to discredit Clinton because he blamed her for inciting mass protests against his regime in late 2011 and early 2012, and because he resented her for disparaging comments she had made about him, the report said.
Trump has for months been dismissive of the intelligence agencies’ claims of Russia’s involvement.
Just hours before he was briefed, Trump dismissed the assessment and told The New York Times that the focus on Russia’s involvement was a ‘‘political witch hunt’’ by adversaries who were embarrassed that they lost the election. AP, Reuters