What the Russians Did in 2016 - Director of National Intelligence

DNI: The US Director of Intelligence states the following on Russian actions in 2016, " 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.....1)We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’selection 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...2)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.....3)Further information has come to light since Election Day that, when combined with Russian behavior since early November 2016, increases our confidence in our assessments of Russian motivations and goals...."

Lets Get Real:

The Conservative hawks and angry liberals will be united in the view that Russia helped in the defeat of HRC.   On the Trump side he can point to the report that states early on that " We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions,capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion. "  In essence both the Intelligence networks and Trump could be right, the Russians hacked, but the outcome was not down to them, it was down to the private server of HRC.