Trump DOJ official on 2016 Russian election hack: "They were certainly looking to hurt Hillary Clinton"
Sunday, 60 Minutes reported on the Russian government's hack of the 2016 elections. In November, correspondent Bill Whitaker spoke to U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Demers, who told 60 Minutes of the hack, "They were certainly looking to hurt Hillary Clinton."
BILL WHITAKER, 60 MINUTES CORRESPONDENT: So you're talking about these 12 Russian agents who broke into the DNC and the D triple C. To what end? Why'd they do it?
JOHN DEMERS, U.S. ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, to the end of interfering with the 2016 elections. If you look at the purpose of these kinds of campaigns is to either embarrass your target or to discredit your target, to put out damaging information about them which will then be amplified by others in the political space, others in the media space, others generally who are reading about it and talking to one another about it. All to the end of damaging that person.
BILL WHITAKER: In this case it looks as though the Russians went out to hurt the Democrats and help the Republicans. Is that what happened?
JOHN DEMERS: They were certainly looking to hurt Hillary Clinton. Right? They were looking for embarrassing information and other information and then releasing it publicly-- in an effort to-- to hurt her and her campaign.
The video above was originally published on November 26, 2019, and produced by Graham Messick and Jack Weingart.