Trump absolves Russia, rejects U.S. intel. community evidence, over Russia’s DNC hacking

Graham and Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) plan to visit several Central and Eastern European countries whose elections were also disrupted by Russian government hackers. U.S. and European intelligence agencies have been closely monitoring these Russian efforts. The Russian cyber campaign to disrupt the political processes in the United States was similar in approach and methods to the Russian efforts to disrupt the politics and public discourse of several European countries. These Russian government-orchestrated  campaigns include the undermining of moderate politicians ad parties by the theft and publications of e-mails – some authentic, some doctored; the proliferation of fake news Web sites which spread lies about, and peddled bizarre conspiracies involving, moderate politicians; dissemination of fake news which support right-wing, ethno-nationalist, racist, authoritarian, and populist movements and politicians, and more.

As is the case with Trump, the parties and movements which Russia has been supporting overtly and covertly in Europe — the Front National in France, Golden Dawn in Greece, Ataka in Bulgaria, Jobbik in Hungary, and more — are anti-EU and want to distance their countries from NATO.

The Russians see Trump and these European populist parties as serving Russian interests. Trump’s policies would weaken the global alliance system the United States has built in the late 1940s and early 1950s to contain Soviet (now, Russian) expansionism, and weaken the liberal economic order by withdrawing from international trade agreements and adopting a more nationalist, mercantilist economic policies.

Last summer, a senior European Union official said hundreds of “disinformation Web sites” had been identified in Poland, the Czech Repubilc, Slovakia, and Hungary.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) said his committee has looked into holding closed-door hearings on the issue of potential Russian interference in the election.

“We have committee members that are interested and we certainly intend to pursue what if any interference took place,” Corker said.

On 7 October, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, and Jae Johnson, DHS secretary, formally accused Russia of directing cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Clinton presidential campaign, and then used WikiLeaks as a vehicle to publish thousands of internal communications among top Democrats.

The unusual public disclosure by the two officials gave voice to the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia was using two of its intelligence agencies – the FSB and the GRU — to “interfere” in the U.S. election.

An official told the WSJ that there is no immediate plan for further declassification.

“Any further declassification would need to follow the same framework [followed ahead of Clapper’s and Johnson’s October statement], consistent with law enforcement and intelligence equities,” the official said.

The official added that the administration had conducted regular legislative briefings in the past months “regarding malicious cyber-activity related to our elections infrastructure” and was “committed to working with Congress to brief members and staff as appropriate.”

Trump, on Wednesday, again absolved Russia from responsibility for the hacking of the DNC and the Clinton campaign. In an astonishing move, Trump rejected the analysis and conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community on the issue, telling Time magazine that the U.S. intelligence was accusing Russia of the hack because of politics and that he rejected their conclusion.

“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe they interfered,” Trump told the magazine.

The senior Democrat on the intelligence committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, expressed his outrage – and worry — at Trump’s implication that “the intelligence community is lying” and said Trump was not acting presidentially.

“Notwithstanding the abundance of evidence that Russia hacked our political institutions during the presidential campaign and dumped documents in an effort to meddle in our political affairs, President-elect Trump’s comments this morning continue to contradict our intelligence professionals and carry water for the Kremlin,” Schiff said on Wednesday.

He added that Mr. Trump “is now peddling two fictions, that millions of illegal immigrants voted, and the intelligence community is lying.”

The WSJ notes that privately, U.S. intelligence officials have fumed at Trump’s refusal to acknowledge what they see as proof of a Russian hand.

Moreover, U.S. efforts publicly to investigate what U.S. intelligence officials have called an “active measures” campaign by the Kremlin to interfere in U.S. politics face an uncertain future. The bill to create an independent commission has no GOP sponsors.

And it would have to be signed by a President Trump, who appears unwilling to accept the incontrovertible evidence, presented to him by the U.S. intelligence community, of Russian meddling in U.S. politics.