Putin Ordered Russian Computer Hacks To Help Elect Trump, Intelligence Report Says

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered cyberattacks during the 2016 U.S. presidential election intending to weaken the candidacy of Hillary Clinton and help Donald J. Trump win the U.S. presidential election, according to an unprecedented and extraordinary report delivered by intelligence officials Friday to the president-elect.

The report, titled "Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections," was written by the combined efforts of officials from the CIA, FBI and NSA and was released publicly after being presented to Trump.

The report does not address whether foreign hacking succeeded in altering the election's outcome, which Trump won by taking the electoral college while losing the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes, and it does not include classified information about how the information was gathered.

After meeting with the officials who presented the report, Trump did not acknowledge the intelligence consensus that Putin aimed to help him win the presidency or even that Russia succeeded in the election-related hacking, which he has publicly doubted in the past.

The report concludes:

• "We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.
• "We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. All three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence."

The conclusions in the report were described on Thursday to President Obama and on Friday to Trump by James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence; John O. Brennan, the director of the C.I.A.; Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency; and James B. Comey, the director of the F.B.I.

The intelligence agencies concluded “with high confidence” that Russia’s main military intelligence unit, the G.R.U., created a “persona” called Guccifer 2.0 and a website, DCLeaks.com, to release the emails of the Democratic National Committee and of the chairman of the Clinton campaign, John D. Podesta.

“We assess with high confidence that the GRU relayed material it acquired from the DNC and senior Democratic officials to WikiLeaks,” the report said. “Moscow most likely chose WikiLeaks because of its self-proclaimed reputation for authenticity.”

Faced with the evidence from the country's top intelligence officials, Trump remained hesitant to blame Putin and instead issued a blanket statement about hacking efforts by China and Russia.

“Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations, including the Democrat National Committee,” the statement said.

Trump called the discussion with intelligence officials "constructive" and praised members of the intelligence community.

He added that the hacking had "absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election."

The intelligence report came to no such conclusion.

“We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election,” the report concluded but added that no evidence was found that attacks altered vote tallies.

The report did state that when Clinton appeared likely to win the election, Russian efforts focused “on undermining her future presidency.”

Arguing that the Kremlin had a clear preference for Trump, the report notes Putin has had positive experience working with "Western political leaders whose business interests made them more disposed to deal with Russia, such as former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder."

It also points to propaganda mechanisms beyond the leaked data as part of Russia's influence in the campaign. These include well-worn messaging strategies that include Russian-funded media like the television network RT (formerly Russia Today).

"Russian influence campaigns are multifaceted and designed to be deniable because they use a mix of agents of influence, cutouts, front organizations, and false-flag operations," the report says. "Moscow demonstrated this during the Ukraine crisis in 2014, when Russia deployed forces and advisers to eastern Ukraine and denied it publicly."

Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s choice to serve as national security adviser, has appeared repeatedly on RT’s news programs. In December 2015, The New York Times reported he was paid by the network to give a speech in Russia and attend its lavish anniversary party.

Paul Ryan released a statement denouncing Russia's aggression, breaking from the president-elect and confirming that he believes Russia attempted to help Trump win election: "Russia has a track record of working against our interests, and they clearly tried to meddle in our political system. I strongly condemn any outside interference in our elections, which we must work to prevent moving forward."

However, Ryan insists that Putin's actions do not alter the legitimacy of Trump's election.

“We must also be clear that there is no evidence that there was any interference in the voting or balloting process," Ryan noted, a point which no official reports have contradicted. "We cannot allow partisans to exploit this report in an attempt to delegitimize the president-elect’s victory. Donald Trump won this election fair and square because he heard the voices of Americans who felt forgotten."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, took today's report as a call to action.

"The report released today should be required reading for anyone who cares about our democracy and our national security," a statement from her office said. "As stunning as this report is in its revelations, I wish the American people could have access to more details. The American people have a right to know what a foreign power did to disrupt out election, regardless of the election's outcome."

She asked for a bipartisan commission to assess Russian actions further and to develop a plan to deter future attacks.

"Vladimir Putin's assault on American democracy was political thuggery in support of Donald Trump and there must be consequences," she said.

Ominously, the report suggests that Russia is likely to continue its underhanded tactics:

We assess Moscow will apply lessons learned from its campaign aimed at the US presidential election to future influence efforts in the United States and worldwide, including against US allies and their election processes. We assess the Russian intelligence services would have seen their election influence campaign as at least a qualified success because of their perceived ability to impact public discussion.

Read the full report>>

Photo credit: Pavel Kazachkov