CIA election report draws Trump team fire

Schumer to press congressional probe

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s presidential transition team on Saturday challenged the veracity of U.S. intelligence assessments that Russia was trying to tip the November election to the Republican. A top Senate Democrat demanded a full congressional investigation.

The CIA has now concluded with “high confidence” that Moscow was not only interfering with the election, but that its actions were intended to help Trump, a senior U.S. official said. The assessment is based partly on evidence that Russian actors had hacked Republicans as well as Democrats but were releasing only information harmful to Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton.

The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the private intelligence assessment publicly and insisted on anonymity.

In a statement late Friday, Trump’s transition team said the finger-pointing at Russia was coming from “the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.” On Saturday, spokesman Sean Spicer told CNN there were “people within these agencies who are upset with the outcome of the election.”

Spicer denied a New York Times report that Russia had broken into the Republican National Committee’s computer networks. The U.S. official who disclosed the CIA assessment to The Associated Press said only that Republican entities had been targeted during the election.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he would press for a congressional investigation in the new year.

“That any country could be meddling in our elections should shake both political parties to their core,” he said. “It’s imperative that our intelligence community turns over any relevant information so that Congress can conduct a full investigation.” Sens. John McCain. R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham. R-S.C., have also said they plan to pursue investigations into Russian election interference. Other Republicans have played down the reports.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that Russian hacking had been going on for years. He said the matter was “serious, but hardly news.”

There was no official response from Moscow. But Oleg Morozov, a member of the foreign relations committee in the Russian parliament, dismissed the claim of Russian interference as “silliness and paranoia,” according to the RIA Novosti news agency. Morozov described the allegations as an attempt to force the next administration to stick to President Barack Obama’s anti-Russian course.

Obama has ordered a full-scale review of campaign-season cyberattacks to be completed before he leaves office in January.

The investigation ordered by Obama will be a “deep dive” into a possible pattern of increased “malicious cyberactivity” timed to the campaign season, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Friday, including the email hacks that rattled the presidential campaign. It will examine tactics, targets, key actors and the U.S. government’s response to the recent email hacks, along with incidents in past elections, he said.

In the months leading up to the election, email accounts of Democratic Party officials and a top Hillary Clinton campaign aide were breached, emails leaked and embarrassing and private emails posted online. Many Democrats believe the hackings benefited Trump’s bid.

Schultz said the president sought the inquiry to improve U.S. defense against cyberattacks and wasn’t intending to question the legitimacy of Trump’s victory.