Early last August, an envelope with extraordinary handling restrictions arrived at the White House. Sent by courier from the CIA, it carried eyes only instructions that its contents be shown to just four people: President Barack Obama and three senior aides.
Inside was an intelligence bombshell, a report drawn from sourcing deep inside the Russian government that detailed Russian President Vladimir Putins direct involvement in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the U.S. presidential race.
But it went further. The intelligence captured Putins specific instructions on the operations audacious objectives defeat or at least damage the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and help elect her opponent, Donald Trump.
At that point, the outlines of the Russian assault on the U.S. election were increasingly apparent. Hackers with ties to Russian intelligence services had been rummaging through Democratic Party computer networks, as well as some Republican systems, for more than a year. In July, the FBI had opened an investigation of contacts between Russian officials and Trump associates. And on July 22, nearly 20,000 emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee were dumped online by WikiLeaks.
The material was so sensitive that CIA Director John Brennan kept it out of the Presidents Daily Brief, concerned that even that restricted reports distribution was too broad. The CIA package came with instructions that it be returned immediately after it was read. To guard against leaks, subsequent meetings in the Situation Room followed the same protocols as planning sessions for the Osama bin Laden raid.
It took time for other parts of the intelligence community to endorse the CIAs view. Only in the administrations final weeks in office did it tell the public, in a declassified report, what officials had learned from Brennan in August that Putin was working to elect Trump.
Obama also approved a previously undisclosed covert measure that authorized planting cyber weapons in Russias infrastructure, the digital equivalent of bombs that could be detonated if the United States found itself in an escalating exchange with Moscow. The project, which Obama approved in a covert-action finding, was still in its planning stages when Obama left office. It would be up to President Trump to decide whether to use the capability.
In political terms, Russias interference was the crime of the century, an unprecedented and largely successful destabilizing attack on American democracy. It was a case that took almost no time to solve, traced to the Kremlin through cyber-forensics and intelligence on Putins involvement. And yet, because of the divergent ways Obama and Trump have handled the matter, Moscow appears unlikely to face proportionate consequences.
Those closest to Obama defend the administrations response to Russias meddling. They note that by August it was too late to prevent the transfer to WikiLeaks and other groups of the troves of emails that would spill out in the ensuing months. They believe that a series of warnings including one that Obama delivered to Putin in September prompted Moscow to abandon any plans of further aggression, such as sabotage of U.S. voting systems.
But other administration officials look back on the Russia period with remorse.
It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend, said a former senior Obama administration official involved in White House deliberations on Russia. I feel like we sort of choked.
and a lot more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/grap...utin-election-hacking/?utm_term=.2dbdc48ebdaeThe Washington Post is withholding some details of the intelligence at the request of the U.S. government.
In early August, Brennan alerted senior White House officials to the Putin intelligence, making a call to deputy national security adviser Avril Haines and pulling national security adviser Susan Rice aside after a meeting before briefing Obama along with Rice, Haines and McDonough in the Oval Office.
Officials described the presidents reaction as grave. Obama was deeply concerned and wanted as much information as fast as possible, a former official said. He wanted the entire intelligence community all over this.