NEW YORK – Republicans on Saturday rejected reports about a secret CIA assessment finding that Russia rigged the US electoral tussle in favour of real estate tycoon Donald Trump.
‘The intelligence is wrong,’ Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer told CNN adding that it did not happen.
He was referring to a New York Times report saying US intelligence agencies had “high confidence” that Russian hackers infiltrated the Republican National Committee’s computer systems as well as Democratic Party’s, but they intentionally released information taken only from Democrat’s computers.
News about the CIA report was first reported by The Washington Post on Friday but Trump’s colleagues rubbished any such report.
‘These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,’ Trump’s transition team said, taking potshot at the spy agency.
Trump’s team saad that the election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history and it was time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again’ as per Trump’s plans.
On the other hand, Democrat’s Senator Chuck Schumer, set to become Democratic minority leader in January, called for a congressional investigation.
‘That any country could be meddling in our elections should shake both political parties to their core,’ he said in a statement on Saturday.
‘It’s imperative that our intelligence community turns over any relevant information so that Congress can conduct a full investigation’ he added.
The reports come after President Barack Obama ordered a review of all cyber attacks that took place during the 2016 election cycle, amid growing calls from Democrats in Congress to fully investigate the reports regarding Russian involvement.
