Trump doubted Russia’s role in DNC hack from debate stage despite intelligence briefing: Report

Donald Trump doubted Russia’s alleged role in hacking the Democratic Party during Monday’s presidential debate despite being informed its involvement during a recent briefing, U.S. government officials said Thursday.

The U.S. intelligence community has concluded with “high confidence” that state-sponsored hackers breached the Democratic National Committee in the lead up to the November 8 election, and officials shared this assessment with the Republican presidential candidate during a recent classified briefing, Time Magazine reported Thursday, citing unnamed officials familiar with the matter.

Nonetheless, Mr. Trump publicly disputed Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton this week when she said there’s “no doubt” Russia is waging a sophisticated cyber campaign against American interests.

“I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. She’s saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don’t – maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?” Mr. Trump said during Monday’s presidential debate.

The GOP candidate later declined to talk about what intelligence briefers had told him.

“I do not comment on information I receive in intelligence briefings, however, nobody knows with definitive certainty that this was in fact Russia,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “It may be, but it may also be China, another country or individual.”

Indeed, the Obama administration has declined to positively blame Russia over a wave of cyberattacks waged against the DNC and dozens of individuals and organizations affiliated with the Democratic Party in recent months.

Security researchers widely agree the evidence points to Moscow, however, and the two Democrats on the Senate and House’s Intelligence Committees squarely held President Vladimir Putin’s regime responsible as recently as last week.

“Based on briefings we have received, we have concluded that the Russian intelligence agencies are making a serious and concerted effort to influence the U.S. election,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff, California Democrats, said in a joint-statement issued last week. “We believe that orders for the Russian intelligence agencies to conduct such actions could come only from very senior levels of the Russian government.”

“We are doing an awful lot of work through our counterintelligence investigators to understand just what mischief is Russia up to in connection with our election,” FBI Director James Comey testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “That’s a part of our work we don’t talk about an awful lot, but it’s at the core of the FBI.”

Mr. Putin denied any role in the hacks during an interview with Bloomberg earlier this month. On Wednesday, meanwhile, researchers at ThreatConnect, a Virginia-based security firm, said the same techniques used by a group of suspected Russian hackers to target the Democratic Party have also been deployed recently against independent journalists who are critical of the Kremlin.

“As evidenced by these efforts and the attack on the World Anti-Doping Agency, organizations that negatively impact Russia’s image can expect Russian cyber operations intended to retaliate publicly or privately, influence or otherwise maliciously affect them,” ThreatConnect said in a blog post.