Alleged Election Corruption: Donald Trump Slams CIA, Waves Off Notion Of Russian Hackers
The Washington Post reported this week the breaking news that the CIA revealed Russian hackers influenced the election. They aren’t the first to say so.
The White House said it happened. Sixteen officials of the intelligence community said it happened. The head of the NSA said it happened. But when it comes to Russian hackers, Donald Trump still maintains, it didn’t happen, reported USA Today.
Worse, he’s also calling the CIA, who he needs to work with in office, liars.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the CIA has concluded a “secret assessment” that indicates that Russia intervened in Elections 2016 in America. Not only did the CIA conclude that Russian hackers intervened in Elections 2016, but the CIA says, they did so with the intention to help Donald Trump win the presidency.
The Washington Post report notes specifically that the individuals that engaged in this behavior, had “connections to the Russian government.” The methodology used in their attacks on American democracy were Wiki Leaks, and widespread hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
No information about Republicans, Donald Trump, or the Trump campaign, was released on Wiki Leaks during the election. The information obtained from those hacking efforts was then dumped on Wiki Leaks to depress the votes for Hillary Clinton.
The CIA says the Russian hackers are “actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation” reports the Washington Post. In their statements on Russian hackers the CIA said,
“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.”
It is unclear at this time what motives Russia would have to want Trump in power over Hillary Clinton. However, if Trump was working with Russia in these efforts, it would be a violation of the Constitution’s directives to abstain from aiding and comforting enemies of the United States, both foreign and domestic. Even Conservatives feel that to be silent on the matter, as Trump has, is “tantamount to treason.”
If there was evidence that the Russians helped Hillary win, my fellow conservatives would be yelling for an investigation.#RussianHackers
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) December 10, 2016
Republican silence will be tantamount to treason.
Call 4 an investigation. Foreign governments can't pick our President.#RussianHackers
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) December 10, 2016
As the Inquisitr previously reported, the White House, including President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are also currently reviewing the Dworkin Report, a report that identifies possible connections between Donald Trump and Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. The 15-page report, now available on Scribd, uncovers 10 Exhibits uncovering alleged Trump ties to Russia.
One of those exhibits, Exhibit 10, reveals 249 businesses registered in Russia with Trump name on them. Donald Trump, on the other hand, has gone on the record to expressly deny having any businesses in Russia.
Trump denies ties to Russia, but says he hopes it finds dirt on Clinton https://t.co/XZlQwWU5NE pic.twitter.com/l7zVFfr1LV
— Bloomberg (@business) July 27, 2016
The White House yesterday instructed America’s intelligence agencies to conduct a more thorough investigation into all of this, and of all attempts by foreign hackers to influence the elections, reports USA Today. USA Today also says that President Obama wants this investigation concluded before he leaves office.
Even if Trump was not working with Russia, for a nation-state to be interfering with an election is nothing short of election corruption. It throws the integrity, and the results, of Elections 2016 in their entirety, into question.
Today, USA Today reported Donald Trump and the Trump transition team have brushed off the CIA’s assessment, and even suggested they are liars. The Trump transition team has released a statement on the matter saying,
“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.”
The PEOTUS and incoming Admin think it's "time to move on" from news Russia subverted U.S. sovereignty and the will of the U.S. electorate. pic.twitter.com/rcKXIGHaZz
— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) December 10, 2016
It is unclear how the Trump transition team defines “a long time,” Election Day was over 32 days ago. The final election results have not actually even been officially confirmed, as many states have not yet certified, some states are currently recounting due to integrity concerns, and the Electoral College has yet to vote.
The election is, technically, not even over, and also was not an Electoral College landslide. Additionally, Hillary Clinton continues to lead in the popular vote by millions.
The Electoral College will meet on December 19. And, the members of the Electoral College are duty bound to not vote for someone that has connections with enemies of the state, both foreign and domestic.
We are duty-bound by the Constitution to prevent a man under the influence of a #foreignpower from becoming POTUS. Pls RT to #stoptrump pic.twitter.com/RyRmdbDOeF
— Hamilton Electors (@HamiltonElector) December 10, 2016
The words “Russia” and “hackers” have been a running theme throughout Elections 2016. Donald Trump has repeatedly denied any involvement from Russia, but has not provided anything other than his opinion to back up that claim.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, for Donald Trump to claim Russia was not involved, was seen by the intelligence community as a “willful misrepresentation of facts” as he was in fact briefed during the election campaign on possible Russian involvement. He still insisted that it wasn’t happening. During the Presidential debates he said,
“Nobody knows that 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 be lots of other people. It could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”
USA Today reports that retired general Michael Hayden, former CIA director during the Bush Administration, says that brushing off this information from the CIA about Russian hackers is not a good idea for the president-elect. He said,
“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.”
Without any evidence whatsoever, Donald Trump has pointed to possibly Russia, possibly China, and possibly a 400-pound individual in their bed as the source of what has now been confirmed as election hacking. Trump may not have been all that far off the mark on at least one of those points.
Bloomberg Politics reports that they have conducted an interview with Kim Dotcom in 2015, a former founder of the now defunct file sharing site called “MegaUpload.” Kim Dotcom is living in New Zealand after having been arrested for copyright infringement in the United States for some of his questionable publications. In December 2014 he tweeted that he was going to take credit for the fact that he would be “Hillary’s worst nightmare in 2016.”
Kim Dotcom certainly has an alleged history of alleged hacking. He spoke with Bloomberg about his “giant exchange system in the sky” that, although no longer active, appears to have worked in a very similar way to Julian Assange’s Wiki Leaks.
But in his interview with Bloomberg’s Emily Chan, Kim Dotcom, deflected the upcoming source of the hacking from him to Julian Assange, the founder of Wiki Leaks. Kim Dotcom told Bloomberg,
“I have to say it’s probably more Julian. But I’m aware of some of the things that are going to be roadblocks for her.”
[Feature Image by Evan Vucci/AP Images]