McMaster: Evidence against Russia ‘incontrovertible’
Trump aide maintains indictments proof of cyberattacks
MUNICH — President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Saturday that the U.S. indictment against Russian nationals showed “incontrovertible” evidence of cyberattacks, a rebuff to Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister who dismissed the allegations as “blather.”
H.R. McMaster told an audience at the Munich Security Conference that Russia engaged in a “sophisticated form of espionage” against the U.S. in a futile attempt at disruption. He referred the indictment against 13 Russian nationals and a “troll farm” based in St. Petersburg, Russia, accused of seeking to interfere in the U.S. presidential election in 2016.
“The evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain, whereas in the past it was difficult to attribute,” McMaster said on a panel Saturday. Russian attempts to influence politics in the U.S. and elsewhere are “just not working,” he said.
The federal indictment alleged a widespread and coordinated effort to influence the 2016 election in Trump’s favor. It alleged that the operation was funded by companies controlled by a Russian businessman close to the Kremlin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who went on stage in Munich just before McMaster, gave short shrift to the allegations.
“Until we see the facts, everything else is blather,” Lavrov said. “I’m sorry for this rather undiplomatic expression.”
To back his claim, Lavrov cited comments by Vice President Mike Pence and Jeanette Manfra, an official in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Manfra “denied the reports that any country has influenced the election results,” Lavrov said.
Manfra said Monday that “we have no evidence — old or new — that any votes in the 2016 elections were manipulated by Russian hackers,” according to a statement by the department.
Lavrov added that “the same was said by Mike Pence, just recently.” In fact, Pence told Axios news Wednesday that “there were efforts by Russia” to affect the election, but that it didn’t work. Americans “can be confident” in the 2016 result, Pence said.
On the panel, McMaster was asked by Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian upper house of parliament, whether he would agree to Russian requests for a dialogue on cybersecurity matters, “which is being rejected all the time by the American side.”
“I’m surprised there are Russian cyber experts available,” McMaster responded, “based on how active most of them have been in undermining our democracies in the west.”