Intel Report on Russia is as Close as it Comes to Absolute Certainty

Nearly everyone now accepts that Russia attempted to interfere with the U.S. electoral process with the aim of harming Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Even President Donald Trump has grudgingly admitted that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. But for a long, long time – far too long – Trump repeatedly dismissed the evidence, saying the intelligence agencies had no idea where the attacks came from, that “it could have been a 14-year-old kid sitting on a bed somewhere.” Trump continued to repeat such comments long after he must have known better.

At the recent G-20 summit, Trump again seemed to back away from the findings of the intelligence community by alluding to the possible involvement of countries other than Russia. As numerous commentators pointed out, how could the U.S. president press Russian President Vladimir Putin on the issue, when Trump himself did not seem to accept the evidence? Any lingering doubts about the Russian origin of the hacking during the 2016 campaign should be put to bed.