President-elect Donald Trump in a Friday tweet pointed approvingly to the fact that a Russian-led hack of the Democratic National Committee revealed that the head of the organization improperly provided Hillary Clinton with debate questions in advance.
In a likely reference to criticism that Trump has received about his reluctance to acknowledge Russia’s role in the hack, Trump tweeted: “Are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?”
Emails leaked in the hack showed that Donna Brazile, who went on to become the interim chair of the DNC, appeared to tip off Clinton’s campaign about a question in advance of a CNN Democratic primary debate in March.
In October another WikiLeaks email suggested that Brazile leaked a question to Clinton in advance of a CNN town-hall-style event in Ohio.
Brazile denied doing so, but an email later showed she had access to the exact wording of a question from TV One moderator Roland Martin.
Brazile had replaced Debbie Wasserman Schultz as chair of the DNC on an interim basis following revelations from WikiLeaks over the summer that the Democratic Party apparatus appeared to actively work to tip the scales against Clinton’s biggest primary challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
US intelligence agencies have said repeatedly since October that they believe Russia interfered in the US presidential election. The CIA has assessed that it did so with the intent of benefitting Trump, though other agencies haven’t gone as far in their assessments. But Trump has so far refused to affirm these assessments.
