WASHINGTON -- The country's top intelligence official said Thursday that Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign consisted of hacking, as well as the spreading of traditional propaganda and "fake news."
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"Whatever crack, fissure, they could find in our tapestry ... they would exploit it," said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on foreign cyberthreats, and especially Russian hacking and interference in the campaign.
Clapper added that "our assessment now is even more resolute" that the Russians carried out the attack on the election.
The hacking was only one part of the Russian endeavor, which also included the dissemination of "classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news," Clapper said.
President-elect Donald Trump has loudly and repeatedly voiced skepticism that the Kremlin was orchestrating the effort, directly clashing with the view of the U.S. intelligence community and the committee's chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Every American "should be alarmed by Russia's attacks on our nation," McCain said at the opening of the packed hearing.
"There is no national security interest more vital to the United States of America than the ability to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference," he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Clapper if he was ready to be challenged by Trump, and Clapper said he is. Graham also advised Trump, "Mr. President-elect, when you listen to these people, you can be skeptical, but understand they're the best among us and they're trying to protect us."
Graham criticized President Barack Obama's moves to sanction Russia over the hackings, saying the president had thrown "a pebble" at the Russians, adding, "I'm ready to throw a rock."
"To those of you who want to throw rocks, you're going to get a chance here soon, and if we don't throw rocks, we're going to make a huge mistake," Graham said. "Ladies and gentlemen, it is time now not to throw pebbles, but to throw rocks."
Clapper also called for a more aggressive counter-propaganda effort. "We could do with having a USIA on steroids," he said, referring to the U.S. Information Agency.
Asked about the possible effect of the disclosure of private information stolen by hackers, Clapper said, "The intelligence community can't gauge the impact it had on the choices the electorate made." But he did say Russian hacking "did not change any vote tallies."
McCain, who has been critical of the Obama administration's responses to cyberprovocations by foreign nations such as China and Russia, pressed Clapper on whether the campaign meddling was an attack on the United States and an "act of war."
"We have no way of gauging the impact, certainly the intelligence community can't gauge the impact, it had on choices the electorate made," Clapper replied.
Determining whether an action is an act of war is a "very heavy policy call that I don't believe the intelligence community should make, but it certainly would carry, in my view, great gravity," he said.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., noted the "imprecise language" in stating that Russia "hacked the election," referring to Clapper's Oct. 7 statement on the matter. Cotton pressed Clapper to be more specific about the agencies' findings.
Cotton also suggested that the conventional wisdom that Russian President Vladimir Putin favored Trump over Hillary Clinton might be wrong. Trump promised a stronger military and more U.S. oil and gas production -- policies Cotton suggested would not be to Russia's advantage.
Also testifying were Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Marcel Lettre and Michael Rogers, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.
The three officials released a joint statement ahead of their testimony outlining cyberthreats against the country and the nation's ongoing strategy to defend itself. The statement describes Russia as "a full-scope cyber actor that poses a major threat" to U.S. infrastructure and networks.
"In recent years, we have observed the Kremlin assume a more aggressive cyber posture," the statement said.
"We stand actually more resolutely on the strength of that statement," Clapper said Thursday. He declined to discuss whether Russia's interference was aimed at helping Trump win.
Regarding the targeting of the Democratic Party in 2016, the statement repeated Obama's assertion that the hacking operation could only have been authorized by "Russia's senior-most officials."
Classified report
A classified report on Russian intelligence interference in the campaign has been prepared for Obama, who received it Thursday. Trump is to be briefed today on the classified evidence concerning Russian interference.
Clapper said intelligence officials "plan to brief the Congress and release an unclassified version of this report to the public early next week."
Clapper promised to "push the envelope" in declassifying as much detail as possible, including Putin's motive in carrying it out. "We'll be as forthcoming as we can, but there are some fragile and sensitive sources and methods here," he said.
"I think the public should know as much about this as possible," Clapper added.
The classified report identifies multiple motives for Russia's interference, Clapper said, but he did not provide details.
Trump has criticized U.S. intelligence findings, even citing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails.
But in new tweets early Thursday, he backed away and blamed the "dishonest media" for portraying him as agreeing with Assange, whose organization has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" Trump wrote.
At the hearing, McCain and his colleagues referred to Trump's past messages of support for Russia and Assange.
"Do you think there's any credibility we should attach to this individual?" McCain asked.
"Not in my view," Clapper said.
Later, McCain asked Clapper again to describe his view of Assange.
Clapper noted that Assange has been "holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London" to avoid a Swedish arrest warrant on allegations of sexual assault. WikiLeaks' revelations, Clapper said, had sometimes put Americans at risk. "So I don't think those of us in the intelligence community have a whole lot of respect for him."
Democrats share the intelligence community's view that Russia was behind the meddling.
"There is still much we do not know, but Russia's involvement in these intrusions does not appear to be in any doubt," said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the committee's ranking Democrat. "In this case, detection and attribution were not so difficult, the implication being that Putin may have wanted us to know what he had done, seeking only a level of plausible deniability to support an official rejection of culpability."
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., took a swipe at Trump for disparaging the intelligence community. The president-elect, for instance, has indicated that he believes Assange's comments that Russia is not behind the Democratic Party hacks. "Who benefits from a president-elect trashing the intelligence community? ... Who actually is the benefactor?" she said.
Clapper replied that "there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism, which policymakers, to include policymaker No. 1, should always have for intelligence, but I think there is a difference between skepticism and disparagement."
McCaskill said there would be "howls from the Republican side of the aisle" if a Democrat had spoken about intelligence officials as Trump has.
"Thank you for that nonpartisan comment," McCain said, joking.
Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., asked Clapper to convey his level of confidence in attributing the election attack to Russia, rather than "someone in his basement."
"It's, uh, very high," the intelligence director replied.
Intelligence changes
As Trump seeks to reshape the intelligence community for his coming administration, a person close to the transition team said Thursday that the president-elect has chosen former Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Coats was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee before retiring from Congress last year. If confirmed by the Senate, he would oversee the umbrella office created after 9/11 to improve coordination of U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies.
The person with knowledge of Trump's decision was not authorized to discuss the pick publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump has been considering ways to restructure intelligence agencies to streamline operations and improve efficiency. Transition officials have been looking at changes at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA, but those plans are said not to be aimed at gutting the intelligence agencies or hampering their capabilities.
The person said the discussions reflect the views of intelligence officials who have told Trump's team that there is room for streamlining within the multiagency intelligence community.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Wednesday night that Trump was considering changes at the intelligence agencies. Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer disputed the report Thursday morning.
"There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure. It is 100 percent false," Spicer said.
The CIA declined to comment on the potential changes.
After a stint as ambassador to Germany under President George W. Bush, Coats joined the high-powered Washington firm of King & Spalding. He helped lead the company's government affairs division and lobbied for pharmaceutical, defense and energy companies.
Coats, who earned $600,000 in his final 13 months at King & Spalding, downplayed his lobbying work when he returned to Indiana for a successful Senate comeback bid in 2010. He served one term and did not seek re-election last year.
Coats was a harsh critic of Russia and pushed the Obama administration to harshly punish Moscow for its annexation of Crimea in 2014. When the White House levied sanctions, the Kremlin responded by banning several lawmakers, including Coats, from traveling to Russia.
Information for this article was contributed by Ellen Nakashima and Karoun Demirjian of The Washington Post; by Eileen Sullivan, Richard Lardner, Julie Pace, Deb Riechmann, Jonathan Lemire and Tom Davies of The Associated Press; and by Matt Flegenheimer and Scott Shane of The New York Times.
A Section on 01/06/2017