Russia ‘meddled in US election to help Trump win’
RUSSIA has been accused of meddling in the US election race to help Donald Trump win.
US intelligence agency officials have been reported as having “high confidence” about Russian involvement in computer hacking in the build-up to last month’s controversial vote.
The spooks claim to have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government, who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from Hilary Clinton’s Democratic Party.
Mr Trump’s transition office last night dismissed the claims.
A spokesman said: “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
“The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called President-elect Trump a “clever man” and sees his appointment as key to thawing relations between the two superpowers.
President Putin’s government has repeatedly denied the hacking accusations but a senior US official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to US senators said: “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.”
It is claimed the Russians hacked the Republican National Committee’s computer systems in addition to attacks on Democratic organisations, but did not release whatever information they gleaned.
In the months before the election, it was largely documents from the Democratic Party systems that were leaked to the public.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has ordered a review of the email hacking.
Intelligence and national security officials have been told to report their findings to the president before he leaves office on January 20, Mr Obama’s counter- terrorism adviser Lisa Monaco said.
Democratic senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee have asked Mr Obama to declassify more information about Russia’s alleged role in the hacks.
In October, US government officials pointed the finger at Russia, accusing it of meddling in the campaign.
Democrats had reacted furiously when email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and Mrs Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, were hacked.
At one point in the highly divisive presidential campaign, Mr Trump publicly encouraged Russia to “find” Mrs Clinton’s emails, although he later said he was being sarcastic.