Intelligence Sources: Putin Must Have Given Blessing To Influence U.S. Election
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami/AP) — Intelligence sources said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had to have known about his country's attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election.
Despite Putin's denials, U.S. intelligence sources confirm this type of cyber operation could not have happened without his blessing.
Sources say the initial assessment was that the senior levels of the Kremlin were somehow involved.
A source told CBS News "the orders to do it would have had to come from the highest level."
The CIA recently concluded with "high confidence" that Russia sought to sway the U.S. election on behalf of Trump.
It's raised red flags among lawmakers concerned about the sanctity of the U.S. voting system and potentially straining relations at the start of Trump's administration.
President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence officials to conduct a broad review on the election-season hacking that rattled the presidential campaign and raised new concerns about foreign meddling in U.S. elections.
One focus is the Russian break-in at the Democratic National Committee.
In the months leading up to the election, email accounts of Democratic party officials and a Hillary Clinton campaign aide were breached, emails leaked to Wikileaks and embarrassing and private emails posted online.
Investigators believe the attack began in July of 2015 — more than a year before the presidential election. Thousands of emails were sent to hundreds of organizations.
Ultimately the hackers — known as Cozy Bear and tied to Russian intelligence — burrowed into the computers of the DNC. And for more than a year they stole documents and emails that would later come back to haunt Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The U.S. intelligence community is split on whether the hacks were specifically intended to help Trump, but since at least 2010 U.S. intelligence analysts have been warning of Russian cyber intrusions and information warfare.
A 2013 threat assessment concluded Russia is among three countries focusing on "using internet content" that might contribute to "political instability and regime change."
With the DNC hack, an FBI agent first noticed the suspicious activity earlier this year. He called the DNC and was transferred to a help desk. His calls went ignored.
It took several months before the DNC realized that it had been contacted by the FBI.
Trump has brushed off allegations that the Russian's were trying to boost his candidacy.
He recently tweeted that unless you catch hackers in the act, it is hard to determine who's doing it, and he wondered why the issue was not brought up before the election.
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