U.S. report: Putin ordered effort to help Trump, hurt Clinton

Putin most likely wanted to discredit Clinton because he blames her for inciting mass protests against his regime in late 2011 and early 2012, and because he resents her for disparaging comments she has made about him, the report said.

The report was released shortly after intelligence officials finished briefing Trump — a move probably intended to bolster the intelligence findings against pushback from the president-elect.

Trump could use the lack of supporting details in the public version to fuel his dismissiveness of the findings, even though he has now been briefed on the classified portion.

Trump has been dismissive of the intelligence agencies’ claims of Russia’s involvement for months, long before he saw the classified information Friday.

Just hours before he was briefed, Trump dismissed the assessment and told The New York Times the focus on Russia’s involvement is a “political witch hunt” by adversaries. “They got beaten very badly in the election,” Trump said. “They are very embarrassed about it. To some extent, it’s a witch hunt. They just focus on this.”

After finally seeing the intelligence behind the claims of the outgoing Obama administration, Trump released a one-page statement that did not address whether Russia sought to meddle. Instead, he said, “there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election.”

The top U.S. intelligence official, James Clapper, told Congress on Thursday that intelligence agencies had no way of gauging what influence this meddling had in the outcome of the election. It was unclear Friday what evidence Trump had to support his claims.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, left, talks with National Security Agency and Cyber Command chief Adm. Michael Rogers on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at the conclusion of a Senate… (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump acknowledged in his statement that “Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people” are consistently trying to hack U.S. networks, including the Democratic National Committee’s.

He said, as did the intelligence report, that “there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines.”

Trump said that as president he would appoint a team to develop a plan to “aggressively combat and stop cyberattacks.”

Still, by late Friday Trump was blaming the victim. “Gross negligence by the Democratic National Committee allowed hacking to take place,” he wrote on Twitter. “The Republican National Committee had strong defense!”

As Trump met in New York with intelligence officials, Congress tallied the Electoral College votes, officially confirming his November victory.

Before the intelligence agencies completed their assessment, Obama announced sanctions against Russia late last year. Trump has not said whether he will undo them once he takes office.

Article Appeared @http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/classified-report-on-russia-election-hacking-going-to-trump/

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