It's as official as it is ever going to get - the Russian Government decided it would like this man to be the 45th President of the United States of America.
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| Donald John Trump |
U.S. National
Intelligence Council,
Intelligence
Community Assessment, 6 January 2017, excerpt:
“This report is a declassified version of a
highly classified assessment; its conclusions are identical to those in the
highly classified assessment but this version does not include the full supporting
information on key elements of the influence campaign.
Assessing
Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections
ICA
2017-01D
6
January 2017
Key
Judgments
Russian
efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most
recent expression of Moscow’s longstanding desire to undermine the US-led
liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant
escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared
to previous operations. 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. 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. All
three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high
confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence.
Moscow’s approach
evolved over the course of the campaign based on Russia’s understanding of the electoral
prospects of the two main candidates. When it appeared to Moscow that Secretary
Clinton was likely to win the election, the Russian influence campaign
began to focus more on undermining her future presidency.
Further information
has come to light since Election Day that, when combined with Russian behaviour
since early November 2016, increases our confidence in our assessments of
Russian motivations and goals.
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.” Russia, like its Soviet predecessor,
has a history of conducting covert influence campaigns focused on US presidential
elections that have used intelligence officers and agents and press placements
to disparage candidates perceived as hostile to the Kremlin.
Russia’s intelligence
services conducted cyber operations against targets associated with the 2016
US presidential election, including targets associated with both major US
political parties.
We assess with high
confidence that Russian military intelligence (General Staff Main
Intelligence Directorate or GRU) used the Guccifer 2.0 persona and
DCLeaks.com to release US victim data obtained
in cyber operations publicly and in exclusives to media outlets and
relayed material to WikiLeaks.
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.
Russia’s state-run
propaganda machine contributed to the influence campaign by serving as a platform
for Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences.
We
assess Moscow will apply lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign aimed
at the US presidential election to future influence efforts worldwide,
including against US allies and their election processes.”
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