U.S. Intelligence Officials Say Russia Worked to Help Trump Win the Election

American intelligence officials say that they have concluded that “Russia acted covertly in the latter stages of the presidential campaign to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances and promote Donald J. Trump.”

There’s still a lot that is unclear about the hacks. According to the same senior officials, Russians also hacked into the RNC, in addition to the DNC, but apparently never released any information they found there. The intelligence officials also have said that many of the hacked documents were given to WikiLeaks for dissemination. According to the Washington Post:

The CIA shared its latest assessment with key senators in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill last week, in which agency officials cited a growing body of intelligence from multiple sources. Agency briefers told the senators it was now ‘quite clear’ that electing Trump was Russia’s goal, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

This is all concerning news, but what may be most concerning is that President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t seem to care. Trump slammed the CIA over these reports, saying:

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. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again.’

It’s important to note that Trump’s assertion is not exactly true–most of the officials that claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction are long gone. And Trump continues to deny that Russia could have been involved in his win.

Putin got just what he wanted: Trump as POTUS and America turning against itself over this intrusion rather than standing together vs Russia

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) December 10, 2016

Obama ordered an investigation into Russian involvement in the general election, and Russia denies any wrongdoing. Hopefully further investigations will answer some of these questions.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.