The US administration is “is 100% certain in the role that Russia played” in election-related hacking, State Department Spokesman John Kirby told CNN.
“There’s no question” about what Russia did to “sow doubt and confusion, and getting involved through the cyber domain, into our electoral process,” he told Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
“And that’s not just an assessment by the President or by Secretary Kerry or other Cabinet officials. It’s an assessment by the entire intelligence community,” he added.
President-elect Donald Trump has raised doubts about that assessment and suggested he has inside information about who was involved.
On December 15, he tweeted: “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”
And three days earlier: “Unless you catch “hackers” in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn’t this brought up before election?”
Kirby dismissed that notion.
“The information is there, and it’s rock solid. And we obviously would not have pursued the measures that we pursued without that level of certainty,” he said. “So, yes, we are a 100% certain.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the date of Trump’s tweet asking why the White House waited to accuse Russia of hacking. It was December 15.
“There’s no question” about what Russia did to “sow doubt and confusion, and getting involved through the cyber domain, into our electoral process,” he told Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
“And that’s not just an assessment by the President or by Secretary Kerry or other Cabinet officials. It’s an assessment by the entire intelligence community,” he added.
President-elect Donald Trump has raised doubts about that assessment and suggested he has inside information about who was involved.
On December 15, he tweeted: “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”
And three days earlier: “Unless you catch “hackers” in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn’t this brought up before election?”
Kirby dismissed that notion.
“The information is there, and it’s rock solid. And we obviously would not have pursued the measures that we pursued without that level of certainty,” he said. “So, yes, we are a 100% certain.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the date of Trump’s tweet asking why the White House waited to accuse Russia of hacking. It was December 15.