Trump won with Russian help, says CIA
People linked to Vladimir Putin’s government gave thousands of hacked emails to Wikileaks.
The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 United States presidential election to help Donald Trump win, rather than just to undermine confidence in the American electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.
Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided Wiki Leaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to United States officials.
The 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.
‘‘It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favour one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,’’ said a senior US official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to US senators.
President Barack Obama’s
Russia’s goal here was to favour one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected. Senior US official
administration has been debating for months how to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions, with White House officials concerned about escalating tensions with Moscow.
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump has consistently dismissed the intelligence community’s findings about Russian hacking.
‘‘I don’t believe they interfered’’ in the election, he told Time magazine this week. The hacking, he said, ‘‘could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey’’.
The CIA shared its assessment with key senators during a closeddoor briefing on Capitol Hill last week, in which agency officials cited a growing body of intelligence from multiple sources.
They told the senators it was now ‘‘quite clear’’ that electing Trump was Russia’s goal, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The CIA presentation to the senators fell short of a formal assessment by all 17 US intelligence agencies.
A senior US official said there were minor disagreements among intelligence officials about the CIA’s assessment, partly because some questions remained unanswered.
For example, intelligence agencies did not have specific intelligence showing officials in the Kremlin ‘‘directing’’ the identified individuals to pass the Democratic emails to wikileaks, a second senior US official said.
Those people, according to the official, were ‘‘one step’’ removed from the Russian government, rather than government employees.
Moscow has in the past used middlemen to participate in sensitive intelligence operations so it has plausible deniability.
Julian Assange, the founder of wikileaks, has said in a television interview that the ‘‘Russian government is not the source’’.
The White House and CIA officials declined to comment.
Yesterday, the White House said Obama had ordered a ‘‘full review’’ of Russian hacking during the election campaign, as pressure from Congress grows for a greater public understanding of exactly what Moscow did to influence the electoral process.
Obama’s counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, said Obama wanted to receive the report before he left office on January 20.
Though Russia has long conducted cyberspying on US agencies, companies and organisations, the presidential campaign marked the first time Moscow had attempted through cyber-means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election, the officials said.