The Senate Armed Service Committee Met to Discuss the Russian Hacking Scandal

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an “influence campaign” in the 2016 United States election to undermine faith in the democratic process, harm Hillary Clinton’s electability and improve Donald Trump’s electoral chances, the USA intelligence has said.

Clapper testified before the panel about cyberthreats, although the overwhelming interest in the hearing circles around what the intelligence community has determined was a Kremlin-orchestrated hacking campaign to undermine the US election and help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.

President Barack Obama has come under criticism for not responding aggressively to this even after becoming aware of it. “This is a political witch hunt”.

“I think some of the disparagement has been a bad disservice to our nation and to the very fearless and courageous men and women who put their lives at risk so that this nation can be better informed”, said Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).

President Obama said today he has full faith in the report, but President-elect Trump, who’ll get the same briefing tomorrow, has been voicing skepticism about the intelligence community’s findings.

But on Tuesday, Trump tweeted that it was “very strange” that “the “Intelligence” briefing on so-called “Russian hacking” was delayed until Friday”. Intelligence officials briefed Trump on the contents of the report.

The facts are closing in – just as surely as the walls of that “Star Wars” trash compactor – on President-elect Donald Trump and his cultlike followers who take the side of Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange against the US intelligence community.

He even seemed to have backed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s contention that Russian Federation did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails.

“Julian Assuage said ‘a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta” – why was DNC so careless? Trump tweeted. “Also said Russians did not give him the info!”

Senior Russian officials celebrated Donald Trump’s election victory last month as a win for Moscow, based on communications intercepted by USA intelligence agencies – leading officials to conclude the Kremlin meddled in the process to try to help Trump secure the White House, according to news reports.

Of course, during his time as a presidential candidate, Trump thought leaks were great … just so long as they benefited his campaign.

“There is clear evidence that they in fact were engaged in activities created to try and impact in the outcome of the election”, Biden said, while noting there was “no evidence that they actually tampered with voting booths or tampered with voting rolls”.

“After two earlier tweets that criticized Democrats and downplayed Russia’s role in the election, Trump tweeted that that “only “stupid” people” do not want a good relationship with Russian Federation, adding that the United States has “enough problems around the world”. To some extent, it’s a witch hunt.