The overseers of the U.S. intelligence community have not embraced a CIA assessment that Russian cyberattacks were aimed at helping Republican President-elect Donald Trump win the 2016 election, three American officials said Monday.
While the Office of the Director of National Intelligence does not dispute the CIA's analysis of Russian hacking operations, it has not endorsed their assessment because of a lack of conclusive evidence that Moscow intended to boost Trump over Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, said the officials, who declined to be named.
The position of the ODNI, which oversees the 17 agency-strong U.S. intelligence community, could give Trump fresh ammunition to dispute the CIA assessment, which he rejected as "ridiculous" in weekend remarks, and press his assertion that no evidence implicates Russia in the cyberattacks.