Report: CIA Identified Russian Officials Who Got Hacked Emails To WikiLeaks

Julian Assange extradition. File photo dated 05/02/16 of Julian Assange, who has accused the Obama administration of trying to "delegitimise" Donald Trump's impending US presidency over the alleged hacking ... Julian Assange extradition. File photo dated 05/02/16 of Julian Assange, who has accused the Obama administration of trying to "delegitimise" Donald Trump's impending US presidency over the alleged hacking of election emails. Issue date: Tuesday January 3, 2017. The WikiLeads founder, who has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since the summer of 2012 for fear of being extradited to the US, was speaking to the Fox News channel's Sean Hannity after Barack Obama identified Russia as almost certainly being responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC). See PA story LEGAL Assange. Photo credit should read: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire URN:29604331 MORE LESS
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The CIA has identified Russian officials who, through third parties, fed hacked emails from Democratic Party groups and individuals to WikiLeaks, Reuters reported Friday.

Citing anonymous senior U.S. officials, Reuters reported that a soon-to-be-made-public report on Russian interference in the 2016 election affirms that Russian officials coordinated the leak of hacked emails to WikiLeaks at the direction of Vladimir Putin. It is unclear from the Reuters story whether the report names those officials.

The upcoming report, the anonymous officials told Reuters, concluded that the Russian government sought to discredit the electoral process and assist Donald Trump. President Barack Obama saw the report Thursday morning, and the President-elect is scheduled to be briefed on it Friday afternoon.

The report also contains so-called “minor footnotes,” including intercepted messages among senior Russian officials who were aware of the hacking effort, and who celebrated Trump’s electoral victory, which bolster the case for Russian interference, according to Reuters.

“People who knew what this was about were celebrating a victory over the United States,” Reuters quoted one unnamed official as saying.

Russia has consistently denied any attempt to interfere in the U.S. election. Trump, in an interview with the New York Times on Friday, said focusing on Russian interference in the election constituted a “political witch hunt” against him.

Hours later, he wrote on Twitter that he is asking Congress to investigate “top secret intelligence” he claims was shared with NBC:

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