Donald Trump: Russian hacking had 'no effect' on vote

dynamitenews.com
Washington D.C/ 7 January 2017. US President-elect Donald Trump has said that hacking by foreign powers did not affect the final outcome of the November presidential election, after being briefed on an intelligence report blaming Russia's Vladimir Putin for a cyber campaign to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.

"While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organisations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election," Trump said in a statement.

Trump met the heads of the Directorate of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency in New York on Friday, on their newly completed report into Moscow's alleged interference.

In a separate post on social media late on Friday, Trump blamed the Democratic National Committee, for allowing hackers into its computer systems.

"Gross negligence by the Democratic National Committee allowed hacking to take place. The Republican National Committee had strong defence!"- Trump’s tweet.

The new declassified report, released by US intelligence officials following the meeting with Trump, said Putin "ordered" a campaign to influence the 2016 election.

It goes on to say that Kremlin developed a clear preference for Trump and hacked targets including both major political parties to help him.

The strategy encompassed covert tactics, such as cyber attacks and paying social media users, as well as overt efforts to target US government employees, think tanks and NGOs.

The report also warned that Moscow will try to influence other elections of US allies. (Al Jazeera)