Yesterday, Donald Trump tweeted:
The Democratic National Committee would not allow the FBI to study or see its computer info after it was supposedly hacked by Russia……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017
So how and why are they so sure about hacking if they never even requested an examination of the computer servers? What is going on?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017
Contrary to Trump’s claim that the DNC “would not allow the FBI to study or see its computer info,” Eric Walker, the DNC’s deputy communications director, told BuzzFeed News via email prior to Trump’s tweets: “the FBI never requested access to the DNC’s computer servers” [Walker’s italics].
Following an intelligence briefing today, Trump released a statement in which he said:
While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines.
That conclusion — “there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election” — is Trump’s and not the conclusion of the intelligence agencies.
Yesterday, the Associated Press reported on testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee:
Brushing aside Donald Trump’s dismissiveness, the nation’s intelligence chief insisted Thursday that U.S. agencies are more confident than ever that Russia interfered in America’s recent presidential election. And he called the former Cold War foe an “existential threat” to the nation.
Did Russian hacking sway the results? There’s no way for U.S. agencies to know, said James Clapper, the director of national intelligence.
Asked about the possible effect of the disclosure of private information stolen by hackers, Clapper said, “The intelligence community can’t gauge the impact it had on the choices the electorate made.”
Where Trump and the intelligence community are in agreement is that, as Clapper said, Russian hacking “did not change any vote tallies.”
After having become a lonely holdout in sustaining his skepticism about whether any Russian hacking had even occurred, Trump now claims absolute certainty about the hacking’s effect — which is to say, that it had no effect.
The overarching message Trump wants to promote is that Russia had no role in his election.
Until it became an unsustainable viewpoint, Trump insisted that he simply didn’t believe there had been any Russian involvement.
Now that he can’t push that line any further, he’s changed his tack slightly by abandoning his hard denial and instead says Russia’s interference was of no consequence.
What is clear, is that Trump is convinced that if he gives any real ground on this issue, he is going to end up being viewed — or as many of us would say, recognized — as Putin’s man in the White House.
One weird effect of the Russian kerfuffle is that it has completely erased the much more effective actions of Comey and the rightist faction within the FBI, which (a) is surrounded by no factual doubts about its existence, (b) was carefully targeted rather than diffuse in execution and impact, (c) was plausibly linked to the campaign through Giuliani, and (d) almost certainly tilted the election by the tiny percentage required to install the Trump regime. A deliriously awful situation, in which a blustering, weak-minded President may well be Putin’s man, Bannon’s man, and the creature of whatever malign elements are thriving inside the US government.