US intelligence agencies believe Russia intervened to help Donald Trump win presidential election
US intelligence agencies have “high confidence” Russia acted covertly to boost Donald Trump’s chances in the US presidential election.
Both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times have reported the findings, citing senior US officials.
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Trump’s transition team rejected the claims, and issued a statement to media saying:
These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again’.
According to the New York Times, intelligence officials believe Russians gave Democratic Party documents to WikiLeaks, which made them public.
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“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favour one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” one senior US official briefed on a presentation given to senators told the Washington Post.
“That’s the consensus view.”