Top US intelligence official has said before a Senate hearing on the allegation of hacking of US election system by Russia on Thursday that president-elect Donald Trump was wrong in faulting report of the US security system on the matter.
Likewise, most of the lawmakers at the hearing in Capitol Hill, Washington agreed that Russia is responsible and asked Trump to be cautious on his claims in order not to erode public confidence in the US Intelligence system.
Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, warned that “his foreign counterparts have expressed concern that President-elect Donald Trump is disparaging the US intelligence community, potentially damaging public confidence.
According to CNN, Clapper said: “I do think public trust and confidence in the Intelligence Community is crucial” both in the US and in other countries that rely on US intelligence, James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I’ve received many expressions of concern from foreign counterparts about the disparagement of the US Intelligence Community, or I should say, what has been interpreted as disparagement of the US Intelligence Community.”
Clapper was speaking at a hearing on global cyberthreats that focused almost exclusively on Moscow’s alleged hacking during the presidential elections.
The hearing gave lawmakers and senior US intelligence officials the chance to draw a line in the sand for Trump, presenting a united front on their conclusion that Russia is a major threat to the United States and was behind election-related hacking — a conclusion the President-elect has refused to accept.