Donald Trump accepts Russia engaged in US election cyber attacks, chief of staff says
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Donald Trump accepts the US intelligence community's conclusion that Russia did engage in cyber attacks aimed at disrupting the presidential election, his incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus says, adding that "actions may be taken" in response.
The President-elect has repeatedly denied that massive hacking attacks from Russia sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 by targeting his rival Hillary Clinton.
But in a surprise twist, his incoming chief of staff told Fox News that Mr Trump now "accepts the fact, that in this particular case, it was entities in Russia" that were behind the Democratic Party intrusions.
Mr Priebus said America's next president plans to order the intelligence community to make recommendations as to what should be done.
"Actions may be taken," Mr Priebus said.
It was the first acknowledgement from a senior member of the President-elect's team that Mr Trump has accepted that Moscow was involved in the hacking and subsequent disclosure of Democratic emails during the election.
The US intelligence agencies released an unclassified report confirming reports they believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a hidden campaign to influence the election in favour of Mr Trump.
Mr Trump had already dismissed the hacking controversy as a "political witch-hunt", and at the weekend said that having a better relationship with Russia is a "good thing".
"Only 'stupid' people or fools, would think that is bad," he tweeted.
In response to the intelligence report, two senior Republican senators have urged Mr Trump to punish Russia in response to the findings that Mr Putin personally directed efforts aimed at influencing the outcome of the November election.
In a joint appearance on NBC's Meet the Press program, Republican senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain said the evidence was conclusive that Mr Putin sought to influence the election.
"In a couple weeks, Donald Trump will be the defender of the free world and democracy," Senator Graham said.
"You should let everybody know in America, Republicans and Democrats, that you're going to make Russia pay a price for trying to interfere."
Action on 'new form of warfare' required: McCain
Both senators said they remain unsure if they will support Mr Trump's pick for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil Corp chairman and chief executive Rex Tillerson, who has been criticised for his close ties to Mr Putin.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday to consider Mr Tillerson's nomination.
Senator McCain said he supports continued investigations into the hacks.
"We need to come to grips with it and get to the bottom of it and overall come up with a strategy in this new form of warfare that can basically harm our economy, harm our elections, harm our national security," he said.
The unclassified intel report said hackers penetrated the Democratic National Committee's email server and separately stole emails from John Podesta, who chaired Mrs Clinton's campaign.
The emails were then posted online and used to embarrass Mrs Clinton, including by Mr Trump who frequently used the content as political ammunition.
It said Russia was trying to undermine public faith in the democratic process, damage Mrs Clinton, making it harder for her to win and harm her presidency if she did.
Reuters
Topics: us-elections, computers-and-technology, hacking, world-politics, government-and-politics, united-states, russian-federation
