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| US election hacking: Putin 'sought to help' Trump | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Donald Trump win the presidential election, a US intelligence report says. | |
| The declassified report says the Russian leader "ordered" a campaign aimed at influencing the election. | |
| The report was released shortly after intelligence chiefs briefed Mr Trump on their findings. | |
| Mr Trump stopped short of accusing Russia of interfering, saying only that the election outcome was not affected. | |
| The report says that the Kremlin developed a "clear preference" for Mr Trump. | |
| "We also assess Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary [Hillary] Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavourably to him," it said. | |
| Since winning the election, Mr Trump has repeatedly questioned US intelligence on the claims of Russian hacking. | |
| US officials previously said the Kremlin was behind the hacking of Democratic Party emails aimed at damaging Mr Trump's rival, Hillary Clinton. | |
| Russian agents are alleged to have sent stolen Democratic emails to WikiLeaks to try to swing the vote for Mr Trump. | |
| Russia has denied any involvement in the hacking and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Moscow was not the source for the site's mass leak of emails from the Democratic Party. | |
| Shortly before his meeting with intelligence chiefs, Mr Trump dismissed the Russian hacking claims as a "political witch-hunt" by his opponents. | |
| He told the New York Times that US institutions had been the target of previous hacking attacks, but they had not received the same media attention as the alleged intrusions during the election campaign. | |
| The briefing at Trump Tower involved National Intelligence Director Gen James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey. | |
| Mr Trump described it as "constructive". | |
| In a statement he declined to single out Russia and said he had "tremendous respect for the work and service done" by those in the US intelligence community. | |
| "While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organisations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election." |