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US accuses Russia of trying to interfere with 2016 election

Posted at 4:00 PM, Oct 07, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-07 17:42:53-04

The Obama administration said Friday it was “confident” that Russia was behind recent hackings of emails about upcoming US elections in an attempt to interfere with the process.

The announcement marks the first time the US administration has officially accused Russia of hacking into US political systems. Earlier in the week, the two countries broke off formal talks about a ceasefire in Syria.

“We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement.

“The recent disclosures of alleged hacked emails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts,” the statement added. “These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow — the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there.”

The announcement was referring to the breach of Democratic National Committee emails and the sites of other Democratic Party-linked organizations disclosed over the summer.

Officials told CNN that Friday’s announcement follows long deliberations within the Obama administration as to whether and when to take this step. They have had confidence on the assessment for some time, with the only question being whether to go public. Previously law enforcement and intelligence officials had pointed to Russia anonymously, with lawmakers among the few to go on record accusing Moscow of being behind the intrusions.

The collapse of the US-Russian relationship in other areas, such as Syria, played a role as well, removing incentives for the White House to remain silent on the matter.

The administration, however, disputes that there was any delay in naming Russia, saying the announcement was made publish as soon as the proper evidence to make an official attribution of responsibility was gathered.

“We also worked as quickly as possible to release as much information as possible in order to provide state and local officials sufficient time to fortify their infrastructure,” a senior administration official told CNN.

Another senior administration official said that the major focus of making the announcement at this time was an effort to reassure the public that government is on top of the situation, that officials know who carried out the hacking and that the US political system can withstand the attacks.

The joint announcement Friday from the two agencies said the US wasn’t yet ready to attribute blame for a series of additional hacks and attempted hacks of voter registration websites in several states.

But US intelligence and law enforcement officials told CNN that there’s strong evidence Russian intelligence services are also behind the cyberattacks against state voter registration websites.

There has been debate within the intelligence community about whether to “name and shame” the Russians for the cyberattacks. Some in the FBI and Justice Department felt the evidence was strong enough to point the finger, but others in US intelligence agencies and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence felt it could encourage retaliation or the exposure of US intelligence operations.

Others in the White House worried about the political overtones over naming Russia, fearing it would be seen as an effort to help Democrat Hillary Clinton given the warm exchanges between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The attack on the Democratic National Committee exposed emails appearing to favor Clinton over opponent Bernie Standards exchanged between senior staffers and the DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was eventually required to step down following their disclosure.

Hackers thought to be working for Russian intelligence have also carried out a series of cyber breaches targeting reporters at The New York Times and other US news organizations.

Democrats on Congress’ intelligence committees were ahead of the administration by a few weeks in deciding to publicly point to Moscow, releasing a statement on September 22 that said they had “concluded” that Russian intelligence agencies were responsible for the intrusions.

Trump has voiced skepticism about whether the Russians are to blame, saying at a recent debate that it could also be “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”