S intelligence agencies accused Vladimir Putin of launching an "influence campaign" to damage Hillary Clinton in a new report, with sources saying British intelligence provided the tip about Russia's hacking of the Democratic Party.
The report said Russia showed a "clear preference" for Donald Trump, the president-elect, and carried out cyber attacks and issued propaganda both to boost his chances and to undermine confidence in American democracy.
Mr Trump insisted on Friday that foreign meddling had "absolutely no effect" on the outcome of the election, and declined to say whether he believed Russia was behind the hacks.
British intelligence was reportedly aware of Russia's involvement as early as autumn 2015, warning the US that the country was responsible for the breach at the Democratic National Committee.
“The British picked it up, and we may have had it at about the same time,” a cyberexpert briefed on the matter told the New York Times.
Earlier in the day, and before receiving a briefing on Russian hackingfrom America's four highest ranking intelligence officials, Mr Trump had dismissed the focus on Russian interference as a "political witch hunt" being carried out by his political foes.
After the much anticipated meeting at Trump Tower with the the director of national intelligence and chiefs of the CIA, FBI and NSA, Mr Trump said he would appoint a team to lead the effort against future cyber attacks.
He praised the intelligence community, with which he has had a combative relationship, but said hacking had "absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election".
The president-elect maintained for months that there was no evidence that Russia was behind hacks of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, despite assurances from US intelligence that the Kremlin was responsible.
He did not say in the statement whether he now believed Russia was behind the hacks.
According to the report, the assessment from the CIA, FBI and NSA is that Russian efforts showed a "significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations" to interfere in US elections.
Mr Trump said he did not want the US to be targeted by hackers, but that cyber attacks during the election were being given undue attention because his opponents had been “embarrassed” by the outcome.
“China, relatively recently, hacked 20 million government names,” he told the New York Times before the meeting. “How come nobody even talks about that? This is a political witch hunt.”
“They got beaten very badly in the election. I won more counties in the election than Ronald Reagan,” Mr. Trump said. “They are very embarrassed about it. To some extent, it’s a witch hunt. They just focus on this.”
Mr Trump, who has resisted calls for a Congressional investigation into Russian hacking, asked Congress to probe a leak of the intelligence report prior to his briefing on Friday.
“I am asking the chairs of the House and Senate committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with NBC prior to me seeing it,” he wrote on Twitter.
NBC had reported on Thursday night that the report identified perpetrators in the DNC hack. Mr Trump tweeted afterward asking how the network could have known the contents of the report.
Prior to his intelligence briefing, Mr Trump visited Conde Nast, the magazine publisher, for a meeting with Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor, and other executives.
Among them was Graydon Carter, the Vanity Fair editor who has sparred repeatedly with Mr Trump and once described him as a “short-fingered vulgarian”.
It also emerged that Mr Trump’s administration-in-waiting has ordered all US ambassadors appointed by President Barack Obama to leave their posts by January 20, the day Mr Trump takes office.
That order could mean the US will be temporarily without ambassadors to Great Britain, China, Germany and other key allies and rivals.
It also breaks long standing precedent in which ambassadors are given a grace period to get their affairs in order and prepare for the arrival of the next president’s appointees.
Mr Trump is also preparing for a political battle over his central election pledge- a wall on the Mexican border.
He is urging Congress to provide funds for the wall, despite repeatedly claiming during the campaign that Mexico would foot the bill.
Mr Trump now says the US will front the money, but demand payment from Mexico after the fact.
Mr Trump also took to Twitter to ridicule Arnold Schwarzenegger, who replaced him as Apprentice host, over the disappointing ratings for the debut episode.
Mr Schwarzenegger responded saying he hoped Mr Trump worked as hard for the American people as he did for Apprentice ratings.
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