FBI and CIA have "high confidence" that Putin and Russian Government "aspired to help President-elect Trump."
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign to influence the US presidential election, according to a recently published report by American spy chiefs.
In a declassified report that has just been published, Putin's alleged involvement in the elections was intended "to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency."
The report also claims to have "high confidence" in the following points:
- The CIA, FBI and NSA all agree that "Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances."
- "When it appeared to Moscow that Secretary Clinton was likely to win the election, the Russian influence campaign began to focus more on undermining her future presidency."
- Further information has led all three organisations to have even more confidence in their "assessments of Russian motivations and goals."
These findings are markedly different from a statement that President-elect Trump released this afternoon, following a meeting that he had with the members of these U.S. intelligence agencies.
"While 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, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines,"
Trump said in a statement.
Here's the declassified report in full.
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/817473315984068610
