CIA Report Says Russia Interfered With Election In Effort To Help Trump

Only yesterday it was revealed that US President Obama has ordered an investigation into the effects Russian cyber attacks had on this year's election, however it appears the CIA has already made its own assessment, determining that the goal was to benefit Donald Trump. Both the Washington Post and NY Times have reported that the CIA has already briefed senators on its conclusion, noting that it was "clear" Russia wanted to see Trump get into the White House.

"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 was told by a senior US official who asked to remain anonymous. In the weeks leading up to the 2016 Presidential Election, US intelligence agencies reported that it was aware Russian hackers were trying to interfere, but it was believed they were trying to shake the public's confidence in the election in general, not specifically benefit one candidate.

The NY Times also writes that the reason for the CIA's conclusion is because the agency found evidence that Russia had hacked the Republican National Committee, just as it had the Democratic National Committee and the email of Hillary Clinton's campaign, but only the data on the Democrats was released to the public. This goes against the recent statements from Republican officials, who have said that their networks were never compromised.

As for Trump, he continues to believe that the US intelligence community is wrong, and that Russia had no part in trying to interfere with the election. In response to this news about the CIA's conclusion, Trump's transition team released a statement that said "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction."

SOURCE Washington Post, New York Times