Donald Trump has acknowledged that he ordered a clandestine military cyber attack on Russian trolls in 2018 to disrupt his internet access during the midterm elections.
Asked by Marc Thiessen, columnist for The Washington PostIf he had authorized the operation, Trump said, “Correct,” according to an article published on Friday.
Until now, neither the White House nor the Pentagon had publicly confirmed the operation, which had been classified.
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Trump sought to frame his action as an example of being more aggressive than his predecessor in countering the Kremlin. Barack Obama said, “I knew before the [2016] choice that Russia was playing. Or they told him. If so, who knows? And said nothing.
In fact, the Obama administration publicly called Moscow in October 2016 for its hacking of Democratic computers, and Obama directly raised the matter with Vladimir Putin. In December of that year, Obama imposed sanctions on Russia for its interference in the presidential elections.
Still, the admission is a rare case that Trump acknowledges that Russia had evil intentions regarding American democracy. He even seemed to brag about his role in deterring such efforts.
“Look, we stopped him,” said the President to Mr. Thiessen.
The admission comes as US intelligence officials have warned that Russia will seek to disrupt this year’s presidential election.
For the most part, Trump has avoided acknowledging such warnings and that Russia has tried to sow discord in the United States, including on Putin’s side in his denials that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election, despite the conclusion of their intelligence agencies to the contrary.
Last year there were reports of the operation of the United States Cyber Command (Cybercom) against the Internet Research Agency in Saint Petersburg, a company underwritten by an oligarch close to Mr. Putin. IRA trolls were active during the 2016 campaign, posing as Americans to post material online in an effort to fuel the conflict by exploiting racial and other social tensions.
The operation was part of the first offensive cyber campaign against Russia designed to thwart attempts to interfere with a US election, officials said. The Washington Post. It marked Cybercom’s first use of new authorities by Trump and Congress in 2018 to bolster offensive capabilities.
The attack began on election day and lasted for several days, preventing the Russians from mounting a disinformation campaign that casts doubt on the election results, authorities said.
The Russian embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
The Washington Post
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