FBI agrees With CIA that Russia's aim was to help Trump win.

[libby]

The following is from the front page of today's Washington Post:

FBI in agreement with CIA that Russia aimed to help Trump win White House

A view of the Kremlin in Moscow during a snowfall on
Dec. 8. (Maxim Shipenkov/European Pressphoto Agency)

By Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima
December 16 at 7:43 PM

FBI Director James B. Comey and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. are in agreement with a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in part to help Donald Trump win the White House, officials disclosed Friday, as President Obama issued a public warning to Moscow that it could face retaliation.

New revelations about Comey's position could put to rest suggestions by some lawmakers that the CIA and the FBI weren't on the same page on Russian President Vladi­mir Putin's intentions.

Russia has denied being behind the cyber-intrusions, which targeted the Democratic National Committee and the private emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta. Trump, in turn, has repeatedly said he doubts the veracity of U.S. intelligence blaming Moscow for the hacks.

"I think it's ridiculous," Trump said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday," his first Sunday news-show appearance since the Nov. 8 election. "I think it's just another excuse. I don't believe it. . . . No, I don't believe it at all."

At a "thank you" event Thursday night with some of her top campaign donors and fundraisers, Clinton said she believed Russian-backed hackers went after her campaign because of a personal grudge that Putin had against her. Putin had blamed Clinton for fomenting mass protests in Russia after disputed 2011 parliamentary elections that challenged his rule. Putin said Clinton, then secretary of state, had "sent a signal" to protesters by labeling the elections "neither free nor fair."

What the U.S. knows about Russia's election hacks, and what it can do about it

Play Video3:19

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 the help Donald Trump win the White House.
(Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)

[Moscow has the world's attention. For Putin, that's a win.]

The positions of Comey and Clapper were revealed in a message that CIA Director John Brennan sent to the agency's workforce Friday.

"Earlier this week, I met separately with FBI [Director] James Comey and DNI Jim Clapper, and there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election," Brennan said, according to U.S. officials who have seen the message.

The CIA and the FBI declined to comment on Brennan's message or on the classified intelligence assessment that CIA officials shared with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month, setting off a political firestorm.

In the closed-door Senate briefing, CIA officials said it was now "quite clear" that electing Trump was one of Russia's goals, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

CIA and FBI officials do not think Russia had a "single purpose" by intervening during the presidential campaign, officials said. In addition to the goal of helping elect Trump, Putin aimed to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, intelligence officials have told lawmakers.

A few days after the Senate briefing, a senior FBI counter­intelligence official briefed the House Intelligence Committee but was not as categorical as the CIA briefer about Russia's intention to help Trump, according to officials who were present. The FBI official's more cautious presentation of the intelligence to the House panel left some Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the room with the impression that the FBI disagreed with the CIA.

Obama warns against making Russia probe a 'political football'

Play Video9:54

Throughout his Dec. 16 news conference, President Obama came back to Russia's suspected role in the 2016 election, how the U.S. became vulnerable to that country's influence and what should be focused on going forward. (Reuters)

Officials close to the FBI and the CIA now say that lawmakers had misunderstood Comey's position. "The truth is they were never all that different in the first place," an official said. Similarly, officials said, Clapper and Brennan saw the intelligence the same way.
Earlier this week, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a Trump supporter, wrote to spy chiefs to demand briefings on the Russian meddling.

But Clapper responded that he wanted to first complete a review of all available U.S. intelligence, as directed by Obama.

Brennan tried to talk to Nunes several times about the dispute. But officials said the congressman didn't take his calls until after he issued a statement Wednesday asking intelligence leaders to "clarify press reports that the CIA has a new assessment that it has not shared with us."

Officials disputed the statement, saying Nunes had been fully briefed on the intelligence.

"In recent days, I have had several conversations with members of Congress, providing an update on the status of the review as well as the considerations that need to be taken into account as we proceed," Brennan wrote in his message to CIA staffers. "Many — but unfortunately not all — members understand and appreciate the importance and the gravity of the issue, and they are very supportive of the process that is underway."

Brennan wrote to the CIA workforce, officials said, to reassure them in the face of accusations from Trump supporters that intelligence was being politicized.

Nunes did not respond to requests for comment, but in a statement, he said, "We have not received any information from Intelligence Community (IC) agencies indicating that they have developed new assessments on this issue. I am alarmed that supposedly new information continues to leak to the media but has not been provided to Congress."

In one of the last news conferences of his presidency, Obama defended his administration's response to the Russian hacking and vowed to "send a clear message to Russia" that its meddling was unacceptable.

"I think we handled it the way it should have been handled," he said of the hacking investigation and the lack of a formal accusation of blame until a month before the election. "We allowed law enforcement and the intelligence community to do its job without political influence."

Obama was referring to an Oct. 7 statement by Clapper and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson publicly blaming Russia for hacking political organizations, a clear reference to the Democratic National Committee and other Democratic officials.

U.S. officials said an earlier draft of the Clapper-Johnson statement singled out Putin by name for authorizing the influence operation. But before the final statement was made public, Putin's name was removed "so it wouldn't be provocative," one official said. Instead, the statement blamed "Russia's senior-most officials."

At that time, Obama said, the U.S. intelligence community "did not attribute motives" to Russia's decision to intervene in the election.

"Imagine if we had done the opposite," he said Friday. "It would have become immediately just one more political scrum. And part of the goal here was to make sure that we did not do the work of the leakers for them by raising more and more questions about the integrity of the election right before the election was taking place — at a time, by the way, when the president-elect himself was raising questions about the integrity of the election."

At Friday's news conference, Obama did not directly point the finger at the Russian president. But he came close to doing so by saying: "Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin."

[Putin wants revenge and respect, and hacking the U.S. is his way of getting it]

Some members of Clinton's campaign, Democrats in Congress and others have taken the Obama administration to task for not calling out Russian efforts to influence the election sooner, as well as for not taking retaliatory action against those responsible for the cyber-intrusions and leaks to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group.
Obama said some possible retaliatory measures might not be seen by the public, although they would be seen or felt by Moscow. Obama, who has only a few weeks left in office, made clear any response to the hacks must be carefully thought through.

"The relationship between us and Russia has deteriorated, sadly, significantly over the last several years," Obama said. "And so how we approach an appropriate response that increases costs for them for behavior like this in the future but does not create problems for us is something that's worth taking the time to think through and figure out."

Abby Phillip and Greg Miller contributed to this report.

Adam Entous writes about national security, foreign policy and intelligence for The Post. He joined the newspaper in 2016 after more than 20 years with The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, where he covered the Pentagon, the CIA, the White House and Congress. He covered President George W. Bush for five years after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Ellen Nakashima is a national security reporter for The Washington Post. She focuses on issues relating to intelligence, technology and civil liberties. Follow @nakashimae

[Palehorse]

Watch- "They don't know what they are doing and my anecdotal evidence overrides their tripe." -(Paraphrased)

Self righteous, indignant, sheep! 

[me]

 

[Henry Hawk]

You lost; get over it....

[The Troll]

You lost; get over it....

  Oh I'm over it, but I'm not going to forget or for give you lying, cheating, frigging, Republican Bastards.    

[Henry Hawk]

  Oh I'm over it, but I'm not going to forget or for give you lying, cheating, frigging, Republican Bastards.    

The only one's I have seen lying and cheating is the losers........wanting recounts, blaming everyone but Hillary for the loss.....it is sort of comical, but now its time to get serious and make this country great again.

[Palehorse]

You lost; get over it....

Your boy McCain doesn't see it that way. . .

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/mccain-sees-russia-hacking-threat-odds-trump-44277165

. . ."We need a select committee. We need to get to the bottom of this. We need to find out exactly what was done and what the implications of the attacks were, especially if they had an effect on our election," McCain said. "There's no doubt they were interfering and no doubt that it was cyberattacks. The question now is how much and what damage and what should the United States of America do? And so far, we have been totally paralyzed." . . .



Looks like the GOP is once again, getting prepared to divide. 

[Henry Hawk]

Your boy McCain doesn't see it that way. . .

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/mccain-sees-russia-hacking-threat-odds-trump-44277165

Looks like the GOP is once again, getting prepared to divide. 

McCain is an ass....he was NEVER my boy.  He was best the GOP could muster up once, but he is NOT my boy.

He is part of the problem...part of the swamp that needs drained.  He is a lifetime politician, who is part of the so-called "establishment"....he is a dinosaur and time for him to kindly go-away....along with about 90% of the politicians in Washington.

[Palehorse]

McCain is an ass....he was NEVER my boy.  He was best the GOP could muster up once, but he is NOT my boy.

He is part of the problem...part of the swamp that needs drained.  He is a lifetime politician, who is part of the so-called "establishment"....he is a dinosaur and time for him to kindly go-away....along with about 90% of the politicians in Washington.

How quickly they turn. . . 

[Henry Hawk]

How quickly they turn. . . 

Nope, this has been a long time in the making.....it just took someone like Trump, who has the balls to actually speak out and be the voice for Americans who are tired of the same old - same old!

Back in the day, McCain was the best we had to pick from, so by default he was my guy...but he was wishy washy then and he is even worse today.

So, call it turnin if you want...but now, I got someone who has me excited about the future of this nation.

[Locutus]

Nope, this has been a long time in the making.....it just took someone like Trump, who has the balls to actually speak out and be the voice for Americans who are tired of the same old - same old!

Back in the day, McCain was the best we had to pick from, so by default he was my guy...but he was wishy washy then and he is even worse today.

So, call it turnin if you want...but now, I got someone who has me excited about the future of this nation.

If you think Trump is speaking for guys like you, you're sorely mistaken. 

[Henry Hawk]

If you think Trump is speaking for guys like you, you're sorely mistaken. 

Listen Locutus, you are the one sorely mistaken.....maybe you need to take a little advice from the Hawk...and just sit back and wait to see what happens before you go attacking the man.

I KNOW! I KNOW!  You are going to call me a hypocrite! Perhaps I was...I could have waited a tad longer...but I DID say, and I gave you proof, that I wished Obama could make me a democrat.....because the bottom line is, I want to see America have another economic BOOM!  I want to see some real leadership once again...I want to see us NOT BE divided as we are now....I want to see Patriotism return....I have real hope and change right now...

Maybe YOU will be right and it could turn out for the worse, but enough of us have faith that Trump won in a landslide victory....along with governorships, House and Senate.

[Palehorse]

Listen Locutus, you are the one sorely mistaken.....maybe you need to take a little advice from the Hawk...and just sit back and wait to see what happens before you go attacking the man.

I KNOW! I KNOW!  You are going to call me a hypocrite! Perhaps I was...I could have waited a tad longer...but I DID say, and I gave you proof, that I wished Obama could make me a democrat.....because the bottom line is, I want to see America have another economic BOOM!  I want to see some real leadership once again...I want to see us NOT BE divided as we are now....I want to see Patriotism return....I have real hope and change right now...

Maybe YOU will be right and it could turn out for the worse, but enough of us have faith that Trump won in a landslide victory....along with governorships, House and Senate.

Hank, have you even performed a cursory investigation into the individuals he is naming to his administration? Our government is being transformed into one run by the corporation and for the corporation, instead of the people.

At least admit that if Hillary had won and the intelligence branches of this nation had proof of foreign influence being imposed upon the process, you'd be clamoring for an independent investigation into the matter. . .

[The Troll]

  Birdy Boy, I'm just waiting for you and your Republican friends to step on your dicks Just like you always do.     It has happened in the past for you asshole some many times and it is going happen again.    This future time it is going to be something really big.   

[Henry Hawk]

Hank, have you even performed a cursory investigation into the individuals he is naming to his administration?

Yes I have paid close attention.  I have also learned to not second guess Trump.  I'm willing to give him a chance......he is the first NON-politician in my lifetime to give it a "go"....We have a congress who is there to keep him in check.  If he makes a bad choice, we will learn quickly.  It isn't like we haven't had some bad people put into admin positions before....THIS congress isn't as Trump friendly as you may think.....He is going to be under a microscope and the press is going to POUNCE on every opportunity they can.  I think he has made some very interesting picks....

Our government is being transformed into one run by the corporation and for the corporation, instead of the people.

He has picked some people who are experts.....and according to Trump are patriotic...which I have no reason to disbelieve....Give him a chance to at least be wrong....you have him tried and hung before he has come close to taken office.

At least admit that if Hillary had won and the intelligence branches of this nation had proof of foreign influence being imposed upon the process, you'd be clamoring for an independent investigation into the matter. . .

If there IS proof then it needs to be shared....and then handled accordingly...

Funny how it was okay for Hillary to impose her influence with phony stories about Trump affairs......these women have all gone away now.  Hillary (or DNC) staged protests against trump to IMPOSE a negative influence....so, excuse me if I am not all giddy about who was trying to influence who....

Wrong is wrong...no mater how you slice it.

Trump is the first from the GOP side of things that had the balls to fight back.....McCain wouldn't.  Romney wouldn't.  Bush didn't.

As far as the emails and wikileaks.......if there was lies about Hillary it would have been one thing, but there is no proof that there was any lies.....it seemed as if they are sorry they got exposed.