Federal intelligence officials and the FBI
issued a non-specific warning about widespread Russian hacking of US government systems sometime back before April of 2016, which was when the DNC employed the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to protect their system. Unfortunately, the Russians had already been in the system since at least June of 2015.
Wikileaks released the DNC emails sourced from Russia during the Democratic National Convention in July after Sanders had lost the nomination.
Trump then asked the Russians to specifically hack Hillary Clinton's campaign on July 27th.
On October 7th, the Access Hollywood tapes of Donald Trump claiming to grope women came out publicly and within hours Wikileaks released
Clinton campaign manager John Podesta's emails (hacked by Russia) in order to act as a spoiler or counter-attack to that information. The FBI only warned him about this two days after the information was already being released in the public and never contacted him again before or after.
Then finally there was the recent announcement mentioned in the OP which is made up of a consensus of all 17 US intelligence agencies including the CIA, NSA, and FBI that concludes that Russia was definitively involved for the purpose of assisting Donald Trump's election. They don't have the ability to hack into the actual voting machines in any numbers to be able to affect the vote that way, but they did influence the outcome through their propaganda efforts against the Clinton campaign.
Russia thinks of Trump as a
"Useful Idiot", a foreign policy ignorant and easily manipulated propaganda tool to advance their agenda in the US and more broadly the West. They can use him to deny facts like when Trump said the Russians hadn't invaded Ukraine or when he denies their hacking even though Trump himself specifically asked the Russians to hack the Clinton campaign. They can use him to undermine our NATO allies by saying we would not defend them unless they were up to date on their debts to the Alliance. They can call in the debts he is suspected to owe the Russians (which we can't verify because he still won't produce his tax returns) to directly influence his decision. They can use his very Russian friendly cabinet to influence Trump's decision making process and promote their agenda in the Ukraine, Baltics, Syria, etc.
The Russians are already running massive exercises along their border with the Baltic states because they perceive a vulnerability there that they can exploit once Trump comes into office in a month.
Let’s begin with the secretary of state in waiting, Tillerson a man who has been in charge at the oil giant ExxonMobil since 2006. He has cultivated very strong business ties with the Russians business and governmental communities.
He is so highly regarded in the country that just three years ago, Tillerson was given the Order of Friendship by Putin himself in 2013, an honor for foreigners in Russia.
But he [General Flynn] also has very strong views of the Russian government being a potential partner with whom the U.S. can work with. He acknowledged to the Washington Post earlier this year that he’d given a paid-for speech at a party held by Russia’s state-run RT television network.
So far So far, Trump’s choices — including top jobs for a trio of veterans of Goldman Sachs, a firm he blasted at campaign rallies — haven’t reflected the populist impulses that fueled his appeal to some white working-class voters or his vow to “drain the swamp” in Washington of donors and other insiders.
Two of Goldman’s top stars Steven Mnuchin, was Trump’s pick for secretary of the Treasury, and Gary Cohn, picked to direct the National Economic Council, are high ranking members, of one of the biggest global companies in the world. As you might expect Goldman does a great many deals with the Russians and have Moscow based offices, which is perfectly legal.
http://www.newstalkflorida.com/featured/president-donald-trumps-russian/
