CBS News: U.S. Has Intercepts Of Russian Officials Pleased At Influencing Election
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- CBS News has learned that the U.S. has intercepts of Russian officials expressing their pleasure that their plan to influence the election was successful.
CBS News has learned further that the Russian motive was to hurt democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and that Republican President-elect Donald Trump's win was a bonus.
The revelations come ahead of Trump's intelligence meeting on Friday at Trump Tower.
Earlier Thursday, top U.S. intelligence officials testified before Congress that Russia poses a major and growing threat to U.S. government, military, diplomatic and commercial operations as well as America's critical infrastructure.
National Intelligence Director James Clapper and other intelligence officials are testifying at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing focused on Russia's meddling in the U.S. presidential election.
More: Full Coverage From CBS News
They say Russia is among at least 30 nations that are developing capabilities to launch cyberattacks.
"Both the government and the private sector have done a lot to improve cyber security and our collective security is better, but it's still not good enough," Clapper said. "Our federal partners are stepping up their effort with the private sector, but sharing of what they have remains uneven."
Meanwhile, as CBS2's Jessica Moore reported, senior members of the Republican Party sent a not-so-subtle message to President-elect Donald Trump to support the intelligence community when he takes office.
"Putin is up to no good and he better be stopped," said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Mr. President-elect, when you listen to these people, you can be skeptical, but understand they're the best among us and they're trying to keep us safe."
Top intelligence officials on Thursday confirmed two different Russian civilian and military intelligence services compromised infrastructure dealing with the election through cyberspace espionage and data leaking.
U.S. intelligence services have concluded that Russian civil and military intelligence services used hacking to interfere in the election process. In one instance, email recipients were tricked into changing passwords, allowing hackers to steal content from multiple senior party members, CBS2 reported.
Clapper said he is convinced that the hacks came from the highest level of government in Russia – a country with which Trump has promised to heal relations.
But President-elect Donald Trump has expressed skepticism that Russia was behind the election hacking.
This past Tuesday evening, Trump also defended Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Twitter. Assange has been accused of being in league with Russia.
Trump's camp also pushed back on reports that the president-elect plans to overhaul the top spy agency when he takes office.
Clapper also said he won't discuss details about the Obama administration's comprehensive report on Russian interference in the election.
He said he understands there is enormous public interest in the report's conclusions and said an unclassified version of the report will be publicly released next week.
"Until then we're really not prepared to discuss this beyond standing by our earlier statements," Clapper said.
Clapper said Congress will also be briefed on the report early next week.
The classified version of the report was delivered to President Barack Obama on Thursday.
Trump will be briefed on the full report Friday.
Also Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) tried to ease concerns that overhauling the Affordable Care Act would inflict hardship on the American people.
"I think they're trying to make Americans think like someday this February or someday this March, you're going to wake up and you won't have a health insurance plan," Ryan said. "That ain't happening."
Republicans also voted to strip funding from Planned Parenthood as they dismantle Obamacare, drawing strong reaction from the organization.
"These attacks on women's health are dangerous and overwhelmingly opposed by the American people, and we will fight back with every single thing we've got," said Celine Richards of Planned Parenthood.
Trump on Thursday also named former U.S. Sen. Dan Coates as his director of national intelligence.
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