FBI probes Russian links to DNC leak.
Clinton campaign alleges sabotage meant to aid Trump
WASHINGTON — The plot seems ripped from the pages of a post-Cold War espionage thriller: Russian spy services hack into the Democratic Party’s computers, pilfer reams of data and then leak damaging emails in the hopes of helping elect a preferred presidential candidate.
Yet, that is exactly the allegation the FBI confirmed Monday it is investigating.
The recent hack of the Democratic National Committee’s computers have left U.S. officials scrambling over how to respond to a cyberattack that may have crossed a new line in the secretive world of statesponsored spying and computer warfare.
One government official equated the hack against one of America’s main political parties to an assault on the nation’s “critical infrastructure,” such as the electrical grid.
The FBI’s terse statement confirming the probe came just three days after WikiLeaks published a trove of nearly 20,000 internal DNC emails that showed its leaders privately favoring former secretary of state Hillary Clinton over her rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, in the party’s primaries. The emails forced the resignation of the party’s chairwoman, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
FBI officials, diplomats and cybersecurity experts expressed concerns that Russia could be seeking to tip the electoral scales in favor of Clinton’s GOP opponent, Donald Trump.
Clinton’s top campaign officials wasted no time in seeking to deflect attention from the emails’ contents to the possibility that Russia might be trying to help
Trump. It marked a surprising turnaround since Republicans traditionally viewed Russia, and the Soviet Union before that, with a wary eye and had frequently accused Democrats of being too soft on America’s Cold War enemy.
Now, Clinton operatives are pointing to statements by the business mogul, suggesting he would be more lenient in dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has praised Putin’s leadership style, and he said recently that he might not support some NATO allies if they were attacked by Russia.
Clinton campaign officials have also noted that
Trump’s campaign cochairman, Paul Manafort, previously worked as a consultant for the now-ousted pro-Russian government in Ukraine.
At a news conference Monday, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook cited the assessment of unnamed experts that Russian state actors had facilitated the hacking and release of the emails “for the purpose of helping Donald Trump.”
The Trump campaign strongly rebutted such allegations. On Twitter, the candidate called the claims “a joke.”
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Manafort denied there were any ties
between the campaign and Putin. “That’s absurd,” Manafort said. “And, you know, there is no basis for it.”
WikiLeaks has also dismissed claims that Russian hackers provided the emails, though WikiLeaks has not said where the emails were acquired.
Getting to the bottom of whether Putin or the Russian government is behind the hack will be difficult, even if the FBI confirms the findings of CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the DNC to investigate the hack.
CrowdStrike in June issued a lengthy report “identifying two separate Russian intelligence-affiliated adversaries” as hackers.
One of the hacking groups, believed run by the Russian security service FSB, was inside the DNC servers for at least a year; the other, linked to the Russian military, penetrated the DNC systems in April.
A number of cybersecurity experts have confirmed CrowdStrike’s findings.
“There are Russian fingerprints all over this,” Rich Barger, chief intelligence officer of ThreatConnect, said in an interview.
Russian hackers are no strangers to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officers. They are also believed responsible for theft of data from the State Department and White House servers.
Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said he would not be surprised if it turns out that Russia is responsible for the intrusion and leaking of DNC emails. “Clearly they would like to see Mr. Trump as president over Ms. Clinton,” he said. “Downgrading NATO, undoing treaties, praise for Putin . ... What’s not to like at the Kremlin?”