NSA Chief Doesn’t Believe DNC Hack Influenced Election
But Admiral Rogers does believe a nation state hacked the DNC
When Wikileaks released Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails in July, people immediately pointed fingers at Russia and cried that the Kremlin wanted to influence the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, who won by a large margin over Hillary Clinton.
But National Security Agency (NSA) Director Mike Rogers dashed those conspiracy theories this past weekend:
“I don’t think in the end it had the effect that [the hackers] had hoped it might,” Rogers said during a panel at the Halifax International Security Forum.
Last week, Rogers told the audience at a Wall Street Journal event that a nation state tried to influence the election with the hacks:
“There shouldn’t be any doubt in anybody’s minds,” he told attendees. “This was not something that was done casually. This was not something that was done by chance. This was not a target that was selected purely arbitrarily. This was a conscious effort by a nation-state to attempt to achieve a specific effect.”
Rogers refused to name the exact nation he thought performed the hacks. Despite these thoughts, he and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) insists the hack did not cause Hillary to lose:
Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Az.) expressed a similar sentiment on Saturday, stating that, “I do not think that the outcome of the election was impacted by Russian hacking.”
“I would agree with that assessment,” Rogers said Sunday, although he did not specifically name Russia. Last week, he had said there was no doubt “a nation state” intentionally tried to interfere in the U.S. election.
In October, President Barack Obama’s administration formerly blamed Russia for the hack in an attempt to influence the election:
“We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the statement said.
The agencies said some state election systems have been recently scanned and probed and that this action originated from servers operated by a Russian company. But the statement stopped short of definitively blaming the Russian government for that activity.
Professor Jacobson wrote about the conspiracy theory in July just after it happened and published thoughts on the hack from Andy LoCasio, the man who maintains the Legal Insurrection server:
The idea that that the Russians were sophisticated enough to hack an email account and then stupid enough to leave meta data in place that implicates them (or any other breadcrumbs) is beyond ludicrous. Thinking that Wikileaks isn’t sophisticated enough to scrub the data is even further beyond the pale of reason.
Hacks of this nature are typically done by very sophisticated individuals who in turn sell that information to the highest bidder. Their only motive is profit.
The media love the Russian angle because it makes another story of carelessness, into something that is more exciting. It is possible that hack came from some individual(s) in Russia, but unlikely that some state sponsored hacking attack would be so sloppy.
Marching high ranking Dems in front of the camera and have them making vague references to how this came from Russia is silly. They will never have any evidence that this is the case.
The hack occurred days before the DNC, with emails that showed the committee conspired from within to ruin Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) campaign against Hillary Clinton.
This caused the DNC to “quarantine” then-DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz from the Democrat convention. She later resigned a day before the convention kicked off while the DNC fired three top officials.
Another document dump showed emails that contained the words pay to play. Those high paying donors eventually became ambassadors. Other emails showed the DNC staged TV protests.
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and that this action originated from servers operated by a Russian company
Once again, a little reality check.
This means nothing.
Two days ago I used a server physically located in Russia, and operated by a Russian company. I used one in France, too, and one in Iceland. Why? That’s a long story, and not terribly interesting … it wasn’t even illegal. But I didn’t even have to get out of my chair to do it.
may if the MFM had covered the information in the e-mails?
instead of just puking forth the talking points “hacked” “Russia” “falsified e-mails”, etc…
i’m enjoying every moment of President Trump treating them like the scum they are.
They are getting ready to get rid of Director Mike Rogers.
This does not pass the smell test.
Sure, I assume the Russians are busy trying to hack whatever they can.
The problem is, they would not recognize the content of the DNC “hack” as being significant in a United States election, because their system and most of the rest of the world are corrupt.
All a Russian would see is business as usual.
A DNC staffer, however, would be an American. That staffer might get too much information, and be horrified by the many, unAmerican, disgustingly corrupt acts of the DNC. Those creeps bought and paid for rent-a-rioters. They decided that the Republican candidate would be formidable, and so they would slander his character, whether there was truth in it, or not. They decided to pre-determine the winner of the Democratic primary. And THEN, there was this huge, shambling mess of a bribery system thinly disguised as a charity, that was being used as a conduit for funds to FOBs and also one family’s personal piggy bank.
Of course, we have no idea who might have leaked those documents, even though one of the DNC staffers was murdered by persons unknown.
Yeah, just keep pushing the theory that it was the Russians.
The finding of Russian involvement is not only supported by multiple U.S. agencies, but by many respected cyber-investigative firms.
In any case, that someone hacked into private emails of the DNC and the Clinton campaign in order to influence the presidential election is clearly a danger to the workings of American democracy.
Whar difference does it make . The media did not report the emails .
I bet not one American in 20 is aware of the email in which Podesta referenced three children 11 9 and 7 as ” entertainment in the hot tub”
That phrase is not found on WikiLeaks.
The idea that that the Russians were sophisticated enough to hack an email account and then stupid enough to leave meta data in place that implicates them (or any other breadcrumbs) is beyond ludicrous. Thinking that Wikileaks isn’t sophisticated enough to scrub the data is even further beyond the pale of reason.
No doubt. That would make sense.