United States intelligence leaders say they believe high-level Russian officials were directly responsible for attacking American computers during the 2016 election campaign. The intelligence leaders met with a U.S. Senate Committee in Washington Thursday. They said that Russia hacked the computers and released documents from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in an effort to interfere in the presidential election. Only “Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures,” they said in a prepared statement. The U.S. leaders are Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency chief Michael Rogers and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre. They called Russian cyber-attacks a major threat to national interests. Clapper said there is no evidence that Russia actually changed any vote counts. He said the intelligence agencies are unable to say how the information might have changed any American minds or votes. Arizona’s John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the hearing that “every American should be alarmed” by Russia’s actions. He added that “Congress must set partisanship aside” in investigating and preventing cyber-attacks on America. On Wednesday, McCain called the Russian interference “an act of war.”
