The State Department on Monday declined to comment on whether it’s in touch with Russian officials about the possibility that a Russia-based hacker broke into the Democratic National Committee’s files.
The release of DNC emails last week has led to headaches for Democrats this week, as supporters of Bernie Sanders say the emails showed an institutional bias in favor of Hillary Clinton during the primary process. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced out of the DNC, and now won’t have a speaking role there this week.
State Department spokesman John Kirby was asked Monday about speculation that Russia hacked into the DNC’s servers, but had no comment.
“It goes without saying that issues of cybersecurity remain a topic of discussion between us and our Russian interlocutors on a continuous basis,” he said. “I don’t have any specific conversations to speak to, and nor would I as this matter is under investigation by the FBI.”
When pressed on how important a breach it would be if Russia were to gain entry into the DNC’s files, Kirby refused to speculate.
“I think we need to let the FBI do their work before we try to form any conclusions here about what happened and what the motivation was behind it,” he said. “The FBI has spoken to this, we’re going to respect that process.”
