President-elect Donald Trump is expected to be briefed Friday on a report prepared by the U. S. intelligence community on Russian hacking activities in the presidential election — after he spent this week still questioning the veracity of their previous assessments .
On Thursday, President Obama received a briefing on the report — prepared by the CIA, FBI and NSA — which he had ordered in December. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Thursday that an unclassified version of the report will be made public early next week. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, Clapper previewed some of the report\u2019s findings.
At a Senate hearing Thursday, U. S. intelligence officials remained resolute in their findings that Russia was behind a series of cyberattacks dur…
\u201cHacking was only part of it,\u201d he said about Russia\u2019s cyber activities during the election. \u201cIt also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news.\u201d
Clapper will be one of four intelligence chiefs to brief Mr. Trump on the report Friday at Trump Tower in New York. The other briefers will be CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers.
For weeks, the president-elect has been questioning the U. S. intelligence community\u2019s integrity and its assessment that Russia not only launched cyberattacks against the U. S. to sow doubt in the election, but to sway the outcome in favor of Mr. Trump. Since the final weeks of the campaign, he also doubted that Russia was responsible.
Mr. Trump claimed on New Year\u2019s Eve that he had information no one else had on Russian hacking and that he would reveal it publicly this week, but he has not yet followed through on that statement. On Wednesday, he posted a tweet indicating he\u2019s still not convinced Russia is to blame for cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee (DNC), other political groups and Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign chairman John Podesta.
The „Intelligence“ briefing on so-called „Russian hacking“ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!
A number of Republicans in Congress like Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, are adamant about the need for the new administration to develop a more clear-cut cyber policy and to punish Russia for its actions. McCaul expressed confidence in the intelligence Thursday, saying that the evidence he was briefed on in both classified and unclassified settings \u201cwas very clear,\u201d and he said that it was clear the attacks were \u201cnation state-based.\u201d
\u201cI think the incoming administration needs to take a strong stance against what has happened,\u201d he told reporters.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and other Republicans warned at his committee\u2019s hearing that Russia must suffer the consequences.
\u201cEvery American should be alarmed by Russia\u2019s attacks on our nation,\u201d said McCain. Later in the day, he told reporters that the Trump administration should work with Congress to craft a cyber policy.
\u201cWe\u2019ll be glad to work with them, but they\u2019ve got to have a policy and a strategy,\u201d he said as he continued to blast the Obama administration for lacking a plan. \u201cThey\u2019ve never had one. They\u2019ve reacted to every single attack in a different way. It\u2019s just crazy.\u201d
Clapper, Rogers and undersecretary of defense for intelligence, Marcel Lettre, issued a joint statement Thursday, warning that Russia is a \u201cfull-scope cyber actor.\u201d
\u201cWe assess that only Russia\u2019s senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based of the scope and sensitivity of the targets. Russia also has used cyber tactics and techniques to seek to influence public opinion across Europe and Eurasia,\u201d they said. \u201cLooking forward, Russian cyber operations will likely target the United States to gather intelligence, support Russian decision-making, conduct influence operations to support Russian military and political objectives, and prepare the cyber environment for future contingencies.\u201d
Last week, the Obama administration announced a new series of sanctions against Russian intelligence agents and entities that the U. S. says were responsible for hacks into the DNC and other servers. In addition to the targeted sanctions, 35 Russian operatives were expelled from the U. S. in retaliation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said those actions weren\u2019t good enough and had some advice for the president-elect: \u201cWhen you listen to these people [in the intelligence community,] you can be skeptical, but you have to understand they\u2019re the best among us.\u201d
\u201cI think what Obama did was throw a pill. I\u2019m ready to throw a rock,\u201d Graham said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t throw rocks, we\u2019re going to make a huge mistake.\u201d
Over the next week, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, plans to roll out legislation containing tougher sanctions against Russia.
\u201cThat hearing today gave a great boost to sanctions,\u201d McCain said. Clapper\u2019s testimony and Roger\u2019s testimony this morning helps that process along and resolved any doubts as to what the intelligence part of our government thinks.\u201d
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, appeared to side this week with WikiLeaks\u2019s Julian Assange who again denied that their source for hacked emails was not the Russian government.
Julian Assange said „a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta“ – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!
Several lawmakers slammed Mr. Trump for questioning the integrity of the intelligence community. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, asked Clapper, \u201cWho benefits from a president-elect trashing the intelligence community?\u201d
\u201cI think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism,\u201d Clapper said, \u201c… I think there\u2019s a difference between skepticism and disparagement.\u201d
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, had positive, but qualified words for the intelligence community.
\u201cI do have faith that our men and women in the intelligence community are doing an incredible job, sacrificing for our country,\u201d he told reporters Thursday, \u201cbut there\u2019s always room for improvement.\u201d
On the question of whether Russians meddled in the presidential election, though, Ryan firmly believes the intelligence. \u201cDid the Russians hack us? Yes. Is it right for any country to meddle in our elections? No,\u201d he said on \u201cThe Jerry Bader Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

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