Russian President Vladimir Putin “ordered” a campaign aimed at influencing the US presidential election, according to a new declassified report.
US intelligence officials released the 25-page public version of the report on Friday, after they briefed President-elect Donald Trump and top lawmakers on Capitol Hill from a longer, classified version.
The report says Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow’s long-standing desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order. It says the scope of Russia’s activities was significantly larger compared with previous operations.
It made clear that the Russian government had developed a “clear preference for President-elect Donald Trump. ”
The goal of Moscow’s meddling was to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton and harm her electability and potential presidency, the report said.
After his briefing, Mr Trump stopped short of embracing the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the presidential campaign, saying only that any hacking attempts had “absolutely no effect” on the outcome of the election.
