All these days several media resources were seen accusing Trump administration of being silent on Russia’s election interference through cyber attacks. But did anyone think on what the former US President Barack Obama was doing at the time when the conspiracy to push the election results in favor of a specific US Presidential candidate was being cooked up?
So, to all those, who are eager to know more details on this issue, here’s a snippet from our Cybersecurity Insiders.
As per a document leaked to Reuters, CIA Director John Brennan had a telephonic conversation on this issue with Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service in August 2016.
It’s said that as soon as the media started to report mounting evidence of a possibility of Russian interference on US Presidential Elections of 2016, Mr. Brennan discussed the issue with Mr. Bortinikov with the permission from the 44th Us President Barack Obama.
John is said to have told Alexander that the relationship between the two nations can deteriorate if what is being reported by the media turns true.
Alexander said that he will pass on the info to Russian President Vladimir Putin and will confirm whether Russia was trying to advance the prospects of candidates that some Americans were in favor off through cyber attacks.
But even after a week, Mr. Bortinikov failed to turn up with an answer and Mr. John is said to have updated the same to the then US President (Obama).
Obama is said to have shown interest to reveal the evidence to his American populace. But was worried that his efforts will be misconstructed as interference in support of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and could provoke Russian retaliation prior to the election.
Had the president revealed it to the public in September 2016, the consequences could have been different- like postponing the elections, or building up fresh strategies to save the integrity of the US 2016 Polls.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson who was responsible to build cyber defenses to state election systems agreed to the fact that the White House knew about Russian Interference in US elections of 2016. But feared concerns that if they leaked the news to the populace via media they would be playing into MR. Trump’s narration that the election was going to rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton.
In August 2016, Brennan is said to have briefed Obama, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Deputy National Security Adviser Avril Haines and Dennis McDonough, the chief of Presidential staff on the gravity of the issue.
But Obama decided to remain silent on this issue because by then the political situation turned volatile and Mr. Donald Trump was accusing Obama administration of favoring Hillary’s win.
