Voters cast their votes during the U.S. presidential election in Elyria, Ohio, U.S. November 8, 2016. (photo: Aaron Josefczyk/Reuters)
US
Inquiries Into Russian Election Hacking Include Three FBI Probes
By Joseph Menn, Reuters
20 February 17
The
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is pursuing at least three separate probes
relating to alleged Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential elections,
according to five current and former government officials with direct knowledge
of the situation.
While
the fact that the FBI is investigating had been reported previously by the New
York Times and other media, these officials shed new light on both the precise
number of inquires and their focus.
The
FBI's Pittsburgh field office, which runs many cyber security investigations,
is trying to identify the people behind breaches of the Democratic National
Committee's computer systems, the officials said. Those breaches, in 2015 and
the first half of 2016, exposed the internal communications of party officials
as the Democratic nominating convention got underway and helped undermine
support for Hillary Clinton.
The
Pittsburgh case has progressed furthest, but Justice Department officials in
Washington believe there is not enough clear evidence yet for an indictment,
two of the sources said.
Meanwhile
the bureau’s San Francisco office is trying to identify the people who called
themselves “Guccifer 2” and posted emails stolen from Clinton campaign manager
John Podesta’s account, the sources said. Those emails contained details about
fundraising by the Clinton Foundation and other topics.
Beyond
the two FBI field offices, FBI counterintelligence agents based in Washington
are pursuing leads from informants and foreign communications intercepts, two
of the people said.
This
counterintelligence inquiry includes but is not limited to examination of
financial transactions by Russian individuals and companies who are believed to
have links to Trump associates. The transactions under scrutiny involve
investments by Russians in overseas entities that appear to have been
undertaken through middlemen and front companies, two people briefed on the
probe said.
Reuters
could not confirm which entities and individuals were under scrutiny.
Scott
Smith, the FBI's new assistant director for cyber crime, declined to comment this
week on which FBI offices were doing what or how far they had progressed.
The
White House had no comment on Friday on the Russian hacking investigations. A
spokesman pointed to a comment Trump made during the campaign, in which he
said: "As far as hacking, I think it was Russia, but I think we also get
hacked by other countries and other people."
During
a news conference Thursday, President Donald Trump said he had no business
connections to Russia.
The
people who spoke to Reuters also corroborated a Tuesday New York Times report
that Americans with ties to Trump or his campaign had repeated contacts with
current and former Russian intelligence officers before the November election.
Those alleged contacts are among the topics of the FBI counterintelligence
investigation.
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