Donald Trump on Monday morning continued to dismiss reports that the CIA concluded that Russian hackers tried to help Trump win the 2016 election, casting doubt on the CIA’s findings with a false claim that the issue was not reported before the November election.
Unless you catch “hackers” in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn’t this brought up before election?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
However, the U.S. intelligence community issued a statement in early October reporting that the Russian government was behind Democrats’ leaked emails on WikiLeaks.
“These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement.
It was widely reported at the time that intelligence officials believed Russia was behind the hacks into the Democratic National Committee. Trump even acknowledged this in July, thanking “one of our many, many ‘friends’” in China or Russia for the leaked DNC emails, and he called on Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s emails.
In October, Mike Pence also acknowledged that it looked like Russia was behind the hacks.
“I think there’s no question that the evidence continues to point in that direction, and we should follow it where it leads,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And there should be severe consequences to Russia or any sovereign nation that is compromising the privacy or the security of the United States of America.”
It was also reported at the end of October that FBI Director James Comey was hesitant to publicly blame the cyber attacks on Russia.
While the conclusion that Russia tried to influence the election through the hacks is not new, the CIA came to a new conclusion last week that the hacks from Russia were aimed at helping Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.
In another Friday morning tweet, Trump dismissed reports that the Russian hacks were aimed at helping him.
Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
