Obama Orders Full Review of Election Hacking Claims

President Barack Obama has ordered a “full review” of election-related hacking that many believe affected the outcome of the 2016 election.

“We may have crossed into a new threshold and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what has happened and to impart some lessons learned,” said Lisa Monaco, Mr Obama’s counter-terrorism and homeland security adviser.

President Barack Obama has ordered a “full review” of election-related hacking that many believe affected the outcome of the 2016 election.

“We may have crossed into a new threshold and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what has happened and to impart some lessons learned,” said Lisa Monaco, Mr Obama’s counter-terrorism and homeland security adviser.

The announcement comes amid calls for the recounts from activists and computing experts, who allege anomalies in voting results in crucial states that led to a Trump win.

Mr Obama expects the full report before he leaves office on 20 January. Although Ms Monaco said the report would be shared with members of Congress, it was not clear that the findings would be made public.

Warning of the dangers of national security threats that come from the internet, Ms Monaco said the new administration will “inherit a rapidly growing threat in this space across all dimensions”.

California Representative Adam Schiff, a senior-ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, applauded the Obama administration’s announcement, and called for the President to declassify as much of the findings as possible.

“It is clear that the Russians hacked our democratic institutions and sought to interfere in our elections and sow discord. In this, tragically, they succeeded,” he said. “Given President-elect Trump’s disturbing refusal to listen to our intelligence community and accept that the hacking was orchestrated by the Kremlin, there is an added urgency to the need for a thorough review before President Obama leaves office next month.”

President-elect Donald Trump has remained skeptical of the intelligence community’s findings. He denied their claims that the election had been tampered with in an interview with Time magazine, which named him their Person of the Year this week.

“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe they interfered,” Mr Trump said, confirming that he thought the conclusions reached by the Obama-appointed officials were politically driven.