(NBC News) The Obama administration on Friday for the first time squarely blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government for a wave of hacking attacks and email leaks, saying the goal was “to interfere with the U.S. election process.”
“The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations,” the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in an extraordinary gloves-off statement.
“We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”
