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WikiLeaks Russia Connection: U.S. Intelligence Has Reportedly Identified The Go-Betweens

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 14:12 PST, Jan 5, 2017

For weeks, the whistle-blowing organization WikiLeaks has adamantly denied that Russia was involved in the DNC email hacks or even associated with WikiLeaks at all; now the U.S. intelligence community is telling a much different story. Reportedly, U.S. intelligence officials have identified the individual go-betweens allegedly used by Russia to get hacked emails into the hands of WikiLeaks.

As CNN reports, outgoing U.S. president Barack Obama was briefed on the intelligence community’s report regarding the connection between Russia and WikiLeaks on Thursday. The briefing comes just days after Julian Assange, the elusive founder of WikiLeaks, blatantly denied any connection between his organization and Russia during a Fox News interview.

Specifically, WikiLeaks’ founder told the U.S. media that Russia was not the source of the so-called “Podesta emails,” which were dumped by WikiLeaks at regular intervals throughout the U.S. election cycle. Those emails were allegedly hacked directly from the DNC, and much of the information they contained ended up being critically harmful to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP6hn04jUes

In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s unexpected November 8 victory, the U.S. intelligence community revealed that it believed that Russia had meddled in the election to help Trump win. Further, according to U.S. intelligence sources, Russia had connections to WikiLeaks and was the likely source of the hacked DNC emails.

According to U.S. intelligence officials, Russia had been involved in deliberately swaying the election in Trump’s direction to the tune of the highest levels of its government. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Julian Assange and President-elect Donald Trump have utterly denied such a plot transpired.

https://twitter.com/AdamWeinstein/status/817074389720113154

President Barack Obama and the U.S. intelligence community, however, have stood behind the U.S. intelligence community’s findings. As CNN reports, Obama recently announced intense sanctions against Russia in retaliation for the alleged election hacking and collusion with WikiLeaks. In an unprecedented move, the White House called Russia’s election meddling “significant malicious cyber-enabled activities,” personally sanctioning five Russian “entities” and four Russian individuals. In addition, President Obama booted 35 diplomats back to Russia and shut down two Russian compounds on U.S. soil.

Still, Russia stands by its denials, claiming that the nation did not meddle in the election and that Russia is not WikiLeaks’ email source. The nation has also vowed an “in kind” response to Obama’s shock-and-awe end-of-presidency sanctions.

https://twitter.com/aReJayBirdsBlue/status/817165226151845888

https://twitter.com/FLREBroker123/status/817198169167634433

https://twitter.com/JT_LSDesign/status/817170443505430528

The new information provided Thursday by U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly details post-election activities of Russian officials. The intercepted information reportedly includes conversation between Russian entities expressing jubilation at Donald Trump’s November victory. Some of the messages were even allegedly “congratulatory,” with agents of Russia purportedly congratulating one another on the Trump win.

Intelligence officials say that what they found makes them increasingly confident that Russia meddled in the election (with the intention of helping Trump win), and that Russia and WikiLeaks were working together.

However, they admit that there is no “smoking gun.”

https://twitter.com/thedissent/status/816150127287140352

Donald Trump has repeatedly shot down the U.S. intelligence community’s claims that Russia and WikiLeaks worked together to help him win the election. His denial of intelligence information combined with an apparent aversion to attending daily intelligence have spawned reports of a rift between the president-elect and U.S. intelligence agencies.

As has his use of Twitter to validate the WikiLeaks cause and the information the organization has made public. Case-in-point was his reaction to an interview given by Vice President Joe Biden. Biden claims to have access to information regarding the alleged Russia hack and WikiLeaks involvement, information he promised to make public “very shortly.”

“I think it will probably confirm what a lot of the American people think.”

When Trump caught wind of Biden’s words on Russia, WikiLeaks, and the election, he couldn’t help taking his critique to the American people via Twitter. In his tweet, he even gave a shout-out to Julian Assange.

On Thursday, Trump got even more vocal on social media regarding WikiLeaks, Russia, and the U.S. intelligence community.

This Twitter tirade came just days after Trump agreed with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange about the “dishonesty” of the U.S. media.

It is still unknown when the U.S. intelligence community and White House will make their full (or at least unclassified) report regarding Russia, WikiLeaks, and the election available to the public.

[Featured Image by Markus Schreiber/File/AP Photo]

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