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Thursday, January 5, 2017
Trump alleges delay in his briefing on ‘so-called’ Russian hacking; U.S. official says there wasn’t one
Arriving at an annual New Year's Eve celebration at his Mar-a-lago, Fla., estate, President-elect Donald Trump left open the possibility of a meeting with Taiwan's president if she visits the United States after he is sworn in on Jan. 20. Trump also pushed back on intelligence claims about Russian hacking. (Reuters)
Arriving at an annual New Year's Eve celebration at his Mar-a-lago, Fla., estate, President-elect Donald Trump left open the possibility of a meeting with Taiwan's president if she visits the United States after he is sworn in on Jan. 20. Trump also pushed back on intelligence claims about Russian hacking. (Reuters)
President-elect Donald Trump took
to Twitter on Tuesday night to say that a planned intelligence briefing
for him on “so-called ‘Russian-hacking’” had been delayed until Friday, a
development he called ‘very strange!” -- but one that a U.S. official
said wasn't a delay at all.
The tweet was the latest sign of Trump’s skepticism about a case pressed
by the Obama administration, based on the work of U.S. intelligence and
law-enforcement agencies, that Russia tried to influence the U.S.
presidential election by hacking several Democratic email accounts,
among other actions. Several leading Republicans have also endorsed that
view.
Trump returned to the topic on Wednesday morning, sending out a new
tweet referencing an interview of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange by
Sean Hannity of Fox News. In the interview, Assange said a 14-year-old
could have hacked the email account of John Podesta, the chairman of
Hillary Clinton's campaign. WikiLeaks published the contents of
Podesta's emails without identifying the source of the hacking.
Speaking outside a party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last week,
Trump sounded dismissive of Russia's alleged role in the hacking, saying
it was “time for the country to move on to bigger and better things.”
But he indicated that he was willing to listen to a briefing on the
issue this week.
Those remarks on Thursday came just hours after President Obama
announced retaliation against Russia that included the removal of 35
Russian government officials and other sanctions against state agencies
and individuals allegedly tied to hacking.
In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, transition spokesman
Sean Spicer said Trump's briefing would be “later this week” but did not
specify a date.
In his tweet on Tuesday night, Trump speculated that the reason for a
delay of his briefing until Friday was “perhaps more time to build a
case.”
“Very strange!” the president-elect said in the tweet.
A U.S. official disputed that there had been any delay in delivering the
briefing that Trump requested on Russia, saying that high-level U.S.
intelligence officials are scheduled to meet with the president-elect in
New York on Friday.
The official said that Trump did receive a regular intelligence briefing
on Tuesday, and raised the possibility of confusion on the part of his
transition team or schedulers.
“It's possible that his team has some scheduling disconnect” and that
“whatever he received today didn't meet his expectations,” the official
said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive
intelligence matters. But, the official said, the fuller briefing on
Russia's alleged election hacking was never scheduled to occur Tuesday,
and that plans for a fuller Friday briefing have been in place for
several days.
The officials expected to take part in that session include Director of
National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr., CIA Director John Brennan,
FBI Director James B. Comey and the head of the National Security
Agency, Adm. Mike Rogers.
U.S. intelligence agencies in recent days completed a draft of the
comprehensive review of Russian hacking that Obama had ordered after the
election. U.S. officials said the document would first need to be
briefed to Obama before it is shared with Trump.
The full report could be delivered to Obama as early as Thursday,
allowing for the document and its principal findings to be shared with
Trump shortly thereafter. U.S. spy agencies are also preparing a
declassified version, stripped of the most sensitive intelligence
information, that could be shared with the public.
In December, during a closed door briefing with senators, the CIA shared a secret assessment. The agency concluded it was now “quite clear“ that Russia’s goal was to help Donald Trump win the White House. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)
In December, during a closed door briefing with senators, the CIA shared a secret assessment. The agency concluded it was now “quite clear“ that Russia’s goal was to help Donald Trump win the White House. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)
That version could be ready as early as next week, but the U.S. official
cautioned that the timetable on all of these events is subject to
change because of the complexity of coordinating the meetings of
multiple spy agencies and their top officials with the White House and
Trump's transition team.
Leading Democrats were quick to criticize Trump on Tuesday night.
When Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) was shown a copy
of Trump's tweet during a television interview, he said Trump was
“being really dumb.”
“Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six
ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” Schumer said on MSNBC's “The
Rachel Maddow Show.” “So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed
businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this. … From what I am told,
they are very upset with how he has treated them and talked about them.”
In light of 2016 election losses, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) encouraged Senate Democrats to "look forward" during a speech on the Senate floor at the outset of the 115th Congress, Jan. 3, 2017. (Reuters)
In light of 2016 election losses, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) encouraged Senate Democrats to "look forward" during a speech on the Senate floor at the outset of the 115th Congress, Jan. 3, 2017. (Reuters)
Meanwhile, Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate
Intelligence Committee, took to Twitter, saying he wished Trump showed
“more . . . respect for our intelligence professionals.”
Really wish we saw more PEOTUS respect for our intelligence professionals. (1/2) twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
And on Wednesday morning, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said she found
the “disrespect” Trump had showed the intelligence community to be
“stunning.”
