Details of the upcoming report from U.S. intelligence agencies on Russia's cyber hacking during the presidential campaign were leaked this afternoon, and among the results are the fact that Russian operatives celebrated Donald Trump's win
The Washington Post reports:
Senior officials in the Russian government celebrated Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton as a geopolitical win for Moscow, according to U.S. officials who said that American intelligence agencies intercepted communications in the aftermath of the election in which Russian officials congratulated themselves on the outcome.
The ebullient reaction among high-ranking Russian officials — including some who U.S. officials believe had knowledge of the country’s cyber campaign to interfere in the U.S. election — contributed to the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Moscow’s efforts were aimed at least in part at helping Trump win the White House.
Other key pieces of information gathered by U.S. spy agencies include the identification of “actors” involved in delivering stolen Democratic emails to the WikiLeaks website, and disparities in the levels of effort Russian intelligence entities devoted to penetrating and exploiting sensitive information stored on Democratic and Republican campaign networks.
Those and other data points are at the heart of an unprecedented intelligence report being circulated in Washington this week that details the evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and catalogues other cyber operations by Moscow against U.S. election systems over the past nine years.
Russia’s initial objective may have been merely to meddle and undermine the legitimacy of an assumed Clinton victory. But as Trump captured the GOP nomination and showed that he could remain competitive with Clinton, Russia’s aims became more ambitious, officials said. The final months of the race saw a steady stream of leaked emails that damaged Clinton’s candidacy, without any corresponding release to embarrass Trump.
The report also includes U.S. intelligence officials' conclusion that Putin held a grudge against Hillary Clinton for years, which they cite as motivation for undermining her campaign.
Additionally, the report indicates that Russia used social media and “fake news” platforms as an “accelerant” to help Trump in his quest for the White House.
President-elect Donald Trump is currently busy having a meltdown on Twitter:
How did NBC get "an exclusive look into the top secret report he (Obama) was presented?" Who gave them this report and why? Politics!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017
The Democratic National Committee would not allow the FBI to study or see its computer info after it was supposedly hacked by Russia......— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017
So how and why are they so sure about hacking if they never even requested an examination of the computer servers? What is going on?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017
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