In an unprecedented public display of acrimony, President-elect Donald Trump and the CIA are engaged in a war of words over the extent and details of Russian efforts to interfere with the American presidential election.
“There must be big smiles this morning at the Kremlin,” said former White House cyber security official Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant.
Trump used his Twitter account this morning to continue his effort over the weekend to discredit the CIA and its reported conclusion that the Russians hacked into the Democratic Party computers in an effort to help elect Trump.
Trump tweeted: “Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!”
The Trump Twitter rant followed a statement issued by a U. S. intelligence official this morning denouncing the push back on the intelligence community’s assessment.
Responding to Trump’s comments over the weekend, an intelligence official told the Reuters news agency that “It is concerning that intelligence on Russian actions related to the U.S. election is being dismissed out of hand as false or politically partisan.”
“The inclination to ignore such intelligence and impugn the integrity of U.S. intelligence officials is contrary to all that is sacred to national security professionals who work day and night to protect this country,” the official said.
Speaking to ABC News, Former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow said the war of words was a “really ugly situation,” and noted that it was “unprecedented to have a president so frontally assault” the intelligence community.
“I would advise that he find a way to turn down the rhetoric and focus on hearing from them [the intelligence community], what they believe and why they believe it,” Harlow said.
U.S. intelligence officials have maintained since October that Russian hackers targeted both Republicans and Democrats. But the hackers were far more successful in their cyber-attacks on the Democrats — stealing thousands of emails between party officials as well as other data — than they were with Republicans, whose official party systems had better defenses against cyber-attacks.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security said in October, that “the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.”
In selecting their targets, the hackers cast a wide net.
Among those attacked was a former Republican party employee whose computer was not connected to the Republican National Committee’s computer system.
Over the weekend, Reince Priebus, who is RNC chairman and has been selected to be White House chief of staff in the Trump administration, told ABC News’ This Week that the RNC’s systems were “absolutely not hacked.”
“We contacted the FBI months ago when the [hacking of the Democratic National Committee] issue came about. They reviewed all of our systems. We have hacking-detection systems in place, and the conclusion was then, as it was again two days ago when we went back to the FBI to ask them about this, that the RNC was not hacked,” he said.
Officials concede that the committee was a target of the Russians.
The news of the attack on the former RNC employee’s computer comes amid widespread disagreement within the intelligence community over the broader extent of Russia’s election-related hacking.
Sources said that the agencies are deeply split over the Central Intelligence Agency’s conclusion that the hacking was done with the intent to get Trump elected. The CIA declined to comment for this story.
While the CIA has championed this view, other agencies believe that the Russians expected Hillary Clinton would win and therefore their cyber efforts were made with the hope to weaken her once she was in office.
On Sunday, Trump flatly rejected reports that the CIA has concluded the Russian hacking was done with the aim of getting him elected.
“I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it,” he told Fox News Sunday.
Rejecting the notion that the CIA might be trying to overturn the election, Trump said: “Once they hack, if you don’t catch them in the act, you’re not going to catch them. They have no idea if it’s Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed some place. I mean, they have no idea.”
The president-elect also called into question media reports about the CIA’s conclusion, and alleging that the stories were floated by his political opponents.
“I’m not sure [the CIA] put it out. I think the Democrats are putting it out because they suffered one of the greatest defeats in the history of politics in this country.
Speaking broadly about the intelligence community’s assessment that the Russians were involved in hacking related to the election, Trump said: “Take a look. They’re not sure. They’re fighting among themselves. They’re not sure.”
Trump’s comments stood in contrast to statements made by some within his own party.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told CBS that there was “no doubt about the hacking…the question is about the intention,” but said that he did not have information over whether or not the RNC was hacked.
And on ABC News’ Good Morning America this morning, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said that the president-elect did not want “interference into our politics,” and “politics [to] interfere with our intelligence.”
“People are trying to politicize our intelligence because they do not like the election result,” she said.
Whatever the hacker’s precise motive, there is no doubt among U.S. officials that the Russian’s goal was to interfere with the U.S. election.
Responding to this accusation, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary for the Russian government, said: “It looks [like an] absolutely unfounded, unprofessional, unqualified statement and accusation which has nothing to do with reality.”
And while there is broad consensus on this point, officials said that as of the beginning of this month, that the Obama administration has not been able to agree on what — if any — retaliatory action to take, to show that there will be consequences for the interference
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