Senator Graham: My Goal is to Present Paralyzing Sanctions Against Russia to Trump

A senior Republican senator says the Russian government has launched a cyber attack on the U.S. election campaign and must "pay the price for it." Senator Lindsey Graham has also reported cyber attacks on his own campaign headquarters. In an interview with CNN, Lindsey Graham stated that his campaign's social media accounts had been attacked. According to the FBI, these attacks occurred in June; Graham mentioned that the FBI informed him three months before the November 8 elections. Graham said, "I believe the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee. I believe they also hacked the emails of [John] Podesta (Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman). They hacked my campaign as well." The Republican senator added, "I believe all the information that has leaked has been detrimental to Clinton and has not harmed [Donald] Trump. But I don't think there is any doubt about the outcome of the election." This member of the Senate Armed Services Committee stated, "My goal is to put severe sanctions against Russia on President Trump's desk. They must pay the price for their actions." The Senate Armed Services Committee is one of the committees that has formed a panel to investigate reports of cyber attacks on the U.S. election campaign. Senator John McCain, the committee's chairman, is a staunch critic of Vladimir Putin. He stated yesterday, "The Russians have definitely hacked our systems... but there is no evidence that they intended to change the outcome of the election, and therefore Congress should investigate this matter." Previously, the Washington Post reported that the CIA had concluded in a "classified assessment" that "individuals connected to the Kremlin in Russia" provided hacked emails from the Democratic Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign manager to WikiLeaks. Shortly after, Congress announced it would conduct bipartisan investigations. In one of the latest reports published by U.S. media, several U.S. intelligence officials told NBC that "Vladimir Putin himself was involved in the cyber interference." This news network, citing two senior U.S. intelligence officials who were not named but have "direct access to information," reported that the Russian president personally decided how and where the hacked information from the Democrats would be leaked. According to these officials, this information was obtained from spies and diplomats of U.S. allied countries. However, on Tuesday, Reuters reported that there are differences between the FBI and CIA's analysis regarding Russia's intent and potential goals during the cyber attacks on the U.S. election campaign, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is also not sufficiently confident about these "intentions"—for example, to assist Donald Trump's campaign. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence oversees the intelligence community in the United States. Russia had previously denied allegations of hacking the U.S. election campaign's computer systems last summer. Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Russian president, stated at that time that Moscow "definitely did not interfere in this matter." German Klimenko, Putin's senior internet advisor, also told the state news agency RIA Novosti, "Usually these cyber attacks are not because hackers break into the system, but often because someone has lost their password or is using a simple password." Other critics of the CIA's recent report regarding cyber attacks aimed at damaging Mrs. Clinton include the elected president's campaign and Trump himself. On December 20, Trump stated in an interview with Fox News that he does not believe the U.S. intelligence agencies' report on Russian interference in the November presidential election and considers them "just another excuse and pretext." Meanwhile, Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, expressed deep concern that inconsistencies in the information provided to Congress could lead to manipulation for political purposes. He had previously called for explanations from the CIA, FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding the existing reports. This senior House representative stated that they rejected his request for explanations on Thursday.