Russia: Prove Russia’s Role In US Election Hacking Or Cease Accusations

Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, stated the United States must stop their accusations of Russia having intervened in its presidential elections or provide proof of the hacking claims, according to CNN. Reportedly, Peskov said the latest allegations that Russia was responsible for the 2016 U.S. election hacking appeared “unseemly.”

On Thursday, President Barack Obama boldly stated the U.S. would take retaliatory action against Russia due to the CIA’s assessment that the country meddled in the U.S. presidential election, according to NPR.

“They should either stop talking about that or produce some proof at last. Otherwise it all begins to look unseemly.”

Obama’s threat came after the White House made allegations about the Russian hacking and said Putin personally had a hand in the cyber attacks. Barack said he doesn’t think anything gets past Putin and claimed the Russian President knew about the hackings. Obama did not reveal what actions the U.S. intends to take when it comes to potential countermeasures, according to the Daily Mail.

“I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections… we need to take action. And we will — at a time and place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be.”

FBI Director James Comey and the Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. are now in agreement with the CIA’s previous assessment of the Russian government being involved in the 2016 election hacks. The assessment concluded that Russia intervened to help Donald Trump win the presidency, according to the Washington Post.

“Mr Putin is well aware of my feelings about this, because I spoke to him directly about it.”

The email scandal had been a thorn in Hillary’s side well before she formally entered the presidential race. Clinton owned up to the revelations when the New York Times first reported that she used a private email server during her time leading the State Department. FBI’s investigation updates of the server leaked at various intervals throughout the entire campaign.

“There are still a whole range of assessments taking place among the agencies… And so when I receive a final report, you know, we’ll be able to, I think, give us a comprehensive and best guess as to those motivations. But that does not in any way, I think, detract from the basic point that everyone during the election perceived accurately — that in fact what the Russian hack had done was create more problems for the Clinton campaign than it had for the Trump campaign.

“There’s no doubt that it contributed to an atmosphere in which the only focus for weeks at a time, months at a time were Hillary’s emails, the Clinton Foundation, political gossip surrounding the DNC.”

On Thursday, a lengthy opinion piece in the Washington Post was written by John Podesta, whose email’s were hacked, criticizing the FBI’s response to the alleged Russian hacking.

“Comparing the FBI’s massive response to the overblown email scandal [over Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server] with the seemingly lackadaisical response to the very real Russian plot to subvert a national election shows that something is deeply broken at the FBI.”

WikiLeaks Founder Says Russian Government Is Not The Source Of Email Leaks

Julian Assange appeared in a surprise interview with Fox News‘ Sean Hannity, which aired on Thursday. Assange repeatedly denied reports that concluded the Podesta and DNC emails were passed to WikiLeaks by the Russian government. Assange spoke out about the recent news regarding assessments of Russia being the source of the email leaks.

Hannity interviewed WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange on his nationally syndicated radio show, The Sean Hannity Show. Assange insisted the allegations of Russia being the source of WikiLeaks’ documents are a “foolish” and “dangerous” effort by Democrat’s to nullify Donald Trump’s presidential win.

Full Julian Assange radio interview with @SeanHannity from this afternoon (US EST) on US election, CIA https://t.co/29gsH9BXla

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 15, 2016

Julian’s camp had previously denied that the DNC and Podesta e-mails were obtained from any government source. Assange held steadfast during the interview and refused to identify the actual source responsible for the controversial email leaks, according to Fox News.

A senior U.S. official briefed on the CIA presentation made to U.S. senators and gave the Washington Post more details into the assessment.

“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected… That’s the consensus view.”

President Obama is hoping the full review of the foreign hacking attempt to influence the U.S. elections will be completed before he leaves office on January 20, 2017.

Hillary Clinton suggests FBI involvement, Russian hackers ‘made the difference’ in election outcome https://t.co/cFnVuPeZXo pic.twitter.com/Ze2dlSNFIQ

— People (@people) December 16, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump has been vocal in stating the Russian government had no interference in the 2016 presidential election results. Donald was most recently on the cover of Time magazine and named “Person of the Year” in their current issue. Trump previously told Time that he believes the U.S. government’s assessment is false.

“I don’t believe they interfered… That became a laughing point — not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say, ‘Oh, Russia interfered.’

“It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.”

Trump was asked if he thought the CIA’s “consensus” was politically driven and he gravely responded, “I think so.”

Michael Hayden was pretty critical of Trump’s refusal to accept the consensus of the intelligence community. According to USA Today, Hayden served as CIA director during the Bush administration.

“To have the president-elect of the United States simply reject the fact-based narrative that the intelligence community puts together because it conflicts with his a priori assumptions. Wow… The data matters.”

President Obama’s interview with Steve Inskeep aired Friday on Morning Edition.

[Featured Image by Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool AP Images]