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Trump mocks US intel agencies
Trump derides intel briefing on 'so-called' Russian hacking
Story highlights
- Trump took to Twitter Tuesday evening to once again deride US intelligence agencies
- It's his latest attempt to undermine their conclusion that Russia hacked Democratic groups
Washington (CNN)President-elect
Donald Trump took to Twitter Tuesday evening to deride the US
intelligence agencies due to brief him on alleged Russian hacking of
American political groups.
It was his latest attack on a
key body he will rely on as commander in chief and again put him at
odds with the agencies' unanimous conclusion that Russia hacked
Democratic Party groups and individuals to interfere in the US
presidential election.
Trump
suggested that intelligence officials postponed an " 'intelligence'
briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' " that they were set to deliver
to him this week because they might need more time "to build a case." He
called the alleged delay "very strange."
Trump tweeted Wednesday,
"Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' - why
was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!"
Trump said last week that he
would receive an intelligence briefing on the Russian breaches this
week and suggested it would come early on, telling reporters on New
Year's Eve that they would know more about the subject "Tuesday or
Wednesday."
But US intelligence officials disputed Trump's tweet alleging a delay.
Top
US intelligence officials have been scheduled to brief Trump on the
full report on Russian hacking President Barack Obama ordered once it
was completed, but the meeting was not set to take place until later in
the week, according to US officials.
The
meeting was never scheduled for Tuesday, as even Obama has yet to
receive the full-fledged briefing on the Russian hacking, one US
official said.
And a US
intelligence official told CNN that Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper was never scheduled to be in New York City, where Trump
is, on Tuesday -- and was perplexed about the "delay" Trump claimed was
taking place.
Trump
on Tuesday did receive a classified intelligence briefing -- the
Presidential Daily Briefing -- which Trump has elected to receive only
sporadically. But it did not dive deeply into the Russian hacking.
US
officials briefed on the matter said Clapper, National Security Agency
Director Adm. Mike Rogers, FBI Director James Comey and CIA Director
John Brennan are scheduled to attend the meeting with Trump providing
him details on the Russian hacking.
While
Obama met with the heads of US intelligence agencies in his first weeks
as president-elect, Trump has yet to do so eight weeks after he was
elected, which US officials said was due to Trump's scheduling
conflicts.
Instead, the President-elect has repeatedly questioned their assessment of Russian cyber activity.
Before
the election, when 17 US intelligence agencies issued a public
statement concluding that Russia orchestrated the hack of the Democratic
National Committee, Trump immediately cast doubt on those conclusions,
arguing it was impossible to distinguish between a Russian government
operative and "somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds."
After
Obama then slapped a series of sanctions on Russia, Trump issued a
statement calling for the country to "move on to bigger and better
things" and then tweeted praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin for
not retaliating against the sanctions.
Trump continued his skepticism on New Year's Eve, telling reporters once again that it "could be somebody else."
"I know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove," he said.
He added that he also knows "things that other people don't know, so they can't be sure of the situation."
On Tuesday, Russia again denied intervening in the US election campaign.
Reacting
to a US intelligence official who told CNN the administration traced
the hack to specific keyboards, which featured Cyrillic characters,
Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said: "I don't understand what this
means exactly but Cyrillic characters can be used everywhere."
"Once again I reject any possibility that official Russia can be involved in any way," he added.
In December, Peskov said it was "indecent" of the US to "groundlessly" accuse Russia of intervention in the US election campaign.
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