President Trump has accused his predecessor of “doing nothing” in response to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election — a misleading statement that contradicts his previous comments.
Mr. Trump’s latest assertions were made after The Washington Post reported on Friday that President Barack Obama was aware of Russia’s campaign as early as August, but did not publicize the findings for fear of politicizing the election and of escalating aggression from the Kremlin.
Mr. Trump has consistently refused to acknowledge Russia’s involvement, and his assertions about Mr. Obama and his own ignorance are highly misleading. Here’s an assessment.
Mr. Trump’s claim of receiving recent knowledge is false.
Since last summer, the accusations of Russian cyberattacks have been widely reported, and it is clear that Mr. Obama — and Mr. Trump — were aware of the malfeasance, though Mr. Trump has repeatedly refused to acknowledge Russia was behind the hacking.
The Democratic National Committee said last June that Russian hackers had obtained a trove of internal emails and opposition research, prompting Mr. Trump to suggest that the committee fabricated the story or hacked itself.
“We believe it was the D.N.C. that did the ‘hacking’ as a way to distract from the many issues facing their deeply flawed candidate and failed party leader. Too bad the D.N.C. doesn’t hack Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 missing emails,” he said in a statement.
A month later, as consensus grew within the intelligence community that Russia was the culprit, Mr. Trump declined to condemn President Vladimir V. Putin.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference, referring to the emails that were deleted from Mrs. Clinton’s private servers. On Monday, the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, said during a briefing that Mr. Trump was “kidding” at the time.
As the official nominees of their parties, Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton began receiving intelligence briefings in early August. On Sept. 22, Democrats leading the House and Senate Intelligence Committees issued a statement accusing Russia “based on briefings we have received.” Four days later, during the first presidential debate, Mr. Trump declined to agree, adding it could be China or “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”
On Oct. 7, the director of national intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint statement saying they were “confident that the Russian government” directed the cyberattacks.
Mr. Trump again expressed doubt that Russia was responsible. During the second presidential debate, he said, “Maybe there’s no hacking.”
His charge that Mr. Obama “did nothing” is also incorrect.
Though some Democrats were dissatisfied with Mr. Obama’s response and say his administration should have done more, Mr. Obama did act.
John O. Brennan, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, warned his Russian counterpart against meddling on Aug. 4, 2016, according to his testimony to Congress in late May. Around this time, the Department of Homeland Security also warned state governments of attempts to access voter registration systems and encouraged them to seek assistance, Jeh Johnson, the former homeland secretary, has said.
In September, Mr. Obama warned Mr. Putin directly at a Group of 20 summit meeting in China. Mr. Obama confirmed at a news conference in December that he had told Mr. Putin to “cut it out,” and explained that he held back from retaliating for fear of Russia escalating the cyberattacks.
On Dec. 29, Mr. Obama issued sanctions against Russia and ejected 35 suspected Russian intelligence operatives. Two days later, Mr. Trump said he still wasn’t convinced. (Last week, The Post reported that Mr. Obama had also authorized the planting of cyberweapons within Russia’s infrastructure.)
On Jan. 6, the office of the director of national intelligence released a declassified report. After being briefed that day on the cyberattacks, Mr. Trump issued a statement pointing to “Russia, China and other countries.”
After his inauguration, Mr. Trump expanded the pool of culpability in multipleinterviews and still would not formally declare Russia responsible.
This spring, numerous intelligence officials, including Mr. Brennan and Mr. Johnson, have testified before Congress and confirmed that Russia meddled in the election. James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence, said in an interview that he was “absolutely” certain of Russia’s actions. James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, also said he had “no doubt” of it.
Mr. Spicer was asked whether the president believes that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
“I have not sat down and talked to him about that specific thing,” Mr. Spicer said.
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