Trump on Russia meddling in US election: ‘I don’t believe it’, by Jim Mannion.
President-elect Donald Trump dismissed a brewing storm over Russian cyber meddling in the US election, rejecting as “ridiculous” US intelligence reports that Moscow tried to help him win the White House.
“I don’t believe it,” Trump said in a pre-recorded interview that was broadcast Sunday on Fox News.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Trump said, putting it down as an attempt by Democrats to find an excuse for their embarrassing election loss. …
The New York Times quoted a senior administration officials as saying there was “high confidence” that the Russians hacked both the Democratic and Republican National Committees, but leaked only documents damaging to Clinton through WikiLeaks.
Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman and Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, said the FBI had investigated and told the RNC it had not been hacked.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has denied links with Russia’s government.
Trump dismissed the intelligence reports, asserting there is “great confusion” over the issue within the spy agencies.
“Nobody really knows,” he said. “They have no idea if it’s Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed some place. They have no idea.”
Trump suggested he had little confidence in the US intelligence agencies and would clean house once in office.
After the FBI’s politicized performance over not indicting a clearly guilty Hillary Clinton, I’m not surprised Trump is skeptical of the intelligence community when it makes pronouncements so convenient for his political opponents.
Trump has kept the US intelligence community at arms length since his election, pointedly eschewing their daily briefing on world threats.
“I get it when I need it,” he said. “You know, I’m a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing and the same words every single day for the next eight years.”
UPDATE: Bolton: Russian hacks could actually have been by Obama administration, by Rebecca Morin.
Ambassador John Bolton claimed Sunday that hacks during the election season could have been “a false flag” operation — possibly committed by the Obama administration itself.
In an interview with Fox News’ Eric Shawn, Bolton questioned why FBI Director James Comey said during the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private server, there was no direct evidence found of foreign intelligence service penetration, but cyber fingerprints were found in regards to the presidential election.
“It is not at all clear to me just viewing this from the outside, that this hacking into the DNC and the RNC computers was not a false flag,” Bolton said. “So the question has to be asked, why did the Russians run their smart intelligence service against Hillary’s server, but their dumb intelligence service against the election?”
