The Senate Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat said Thursday that she holds Russia responsible for the hacking of an email account held by Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, saying it was perpetrated by “heirs of the KGB.”
“Based on media reports I have seen and briefings I have received, I can only conclude that the Russian government is attempting to interfere in our election with the goal of electing Donald Trump,” California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a statement.
“The hacking of political institutions, the recent hacking of John Podesta’s email account and the release of other faked documents are clear efforts to discredit the Clinton campaign and represent yet another unacceptable step in what appears to be an attempt by the Russians to fix this election. Every elected official and candidate in the United States, including Trump, should vocally and forcefully reject these efforts,” she said.
“I agree with the director of National Intelligence and the secretary of Homeland Security that only the senior-most government officials in Russia could have ordered this effort, and it is up to President Putin to call it off. The administration should be prepared to take forceful action to respond to Russian actions if President Putin is unwilling to do so,” she added.
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WikiLeaks has published 9,011 messages obtained from Podesta’s personal Gmail account over the last week. In a statement on Friday, intelligence officials said the publication of documents hacked from Democrats was “consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts,” and that related “disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.”
The statement stopped short of attributing responsibility for specific events. The Obama administration has not announced what retaliatory action might be taken. White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said this week that it would be “proportional,” but that the action taken might not be made public, despite the call by Feinstein and others in Congress.
“Americans should not and will not stand for these illegal and illegitimate attempts by the heirs of the KGB to corrupt our election system,” Feinstein added.
