The
CIA has concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help
President-elect Donald Trump win the White House, and not just to undermine
confidence in the U.S. electoral system, the Washington Post reported on
Friday.
Citing
U.S. officials briefed on the matter, the Post said intelligence agencies had
identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided
thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others,
including the chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, to
WikiLeaks.
The
officials described the individuals as people known to the intelligence
community who were part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and reduce
Clinton's chances of winning the election.
"It
is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to
favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected," the Post
quoted a senior U.S. official as saying. "That's the consensus view."
The
Post said the official had been briefed on an intelligence presentation made by
the Central Intelligence Agency to key U.S. senators behind closed-doors last
week.
The
CIA, in what the Post said was a secret assessment, cited a growing body of
evidence from multiple sources. Briefers told the senators it was now
"quite clear" that electing Trump was Russia's goal, the Post quoted
officials as saying on condition of anonymity.
In
October, the U.S. government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber
attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential
election.
President
Barack Obama has said he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin about
consequences for the attacks. But Russian officials have denied all accusations
of interference in the U.S. election.
A
CIA spokeswoman said the agency had no comment on the report.
Trump
has said he is not convinced Russia was behind the cyber attacks. His
transition team issued a statement on "claims of foreign interference in
U.S. elections" on Friday but did not directly address the issue.
The
hacked emails passed to WikiLeaks were a regular source of embarrassment to the
Clinton campaign during the race for the presidency.
The
CIA presentation fell short of a formal U.S. assessment by all 17 U.S.
intelligence agencies, the Post said. A senior U.S. official said there
remained minor disagreements among intelligence officials about the assessment
because some questions are unanswered, it said.
Intelligence
agencies did not have specific intelligence showing the Kremlin directed the
individuals to pass the hacked emails to WikiLeaks, another senior official
told the Post. The actors were "one step" removed from the Russian
government rather than government employees, the official said.
WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange has said in a television interview that the Russian
government was not the source of the emails, the Post said.
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