Damning Intelligence Report Finds Russia Intentionally Influenced The Election For Trump

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:46 pm

The Director of National Intelligence released a summary of the report to the public and the judgments of the FBI, CIA, and NSA was damning for Russia and Trump.

Here are the judgments of the FBI, CIA, and NSA:

We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.

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We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.

We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.

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Moscow’s influence campaign followed a Russian messaging strategy that blends covert intelligence operations such as cyber activity with overt efforts by Russian Government agencies, state funded media, third party intermediaries, and paid social media users or “trolls.”

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Russian intelligence obtained and maintained access to elements of multiple US state or local electoral boards. DHS assesses that the types of systems Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying.

President-elect Trump continues to defend Russia while trying to cast doubt on whether or not Russia meddled in the election. However, it is clear in the eyes of the intelligence community that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump and harm Hillary Clinton. Russia worked to get Donald Trump elected.

There is no intelligence to support the Green Party theory that tallies were hacked, but Russia could have manipulated the pre-tallying process via access to local election boards.

What remains missing a smoking gun that connects the Trump campaign to Russia. There is no direct evidence that Trump colluded with Russia. If proof ever emerges that Trump worked with Russia to win the election, his presidency will be finished.

The report is bad enough. A US presidential election was compromised by a hostile actor. The intelligence community warned that Russia would use what they have learned in 2016 to manipulate other future election.

The conclusion is inescapable that Russia got Donald Trump elected president.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association