Trump Doubtful As US Spy Chiefs To Testify On Russian Hacking

WASHINGTON, Jan 5, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 05th Jan, 2017 ) - Top US spy chiefs will testify in Congress Thursday on alleged Russian interference in the US election as President-elect Donald Trump continued to question intelligence that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic party computers.

The American public could get a better idea of the strength of the evidence on the alleged hacking as the Senate Armed Services Committee holds a hearing led by strong Russia critic John McCain, who on Wednesday called Moscow's actions to subvert the US presidential vote an "act of war." Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers are due to testify amid a heated rift between Trump and the intelligence bodies he will rely upon for crucial advice when he become president on January 20.

In tweets this week, Trump ridiculed the CIA and FBI conclusions, which are supported by outgoing President Barack Obama, that hackers working at the bidding of the Russian government stole embarrassing Democratic Party documents from the party's computers and leaked the via WikiLeaks to undermine the presidential campaign of Trump rival Hillary Clinton.

Referring to a planned presentation to him by intelligence chiefs, Trump tweeted: "The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case.

Very strange!" He then added to the insult by citing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his dismissal of the findings of multiple US agencies that Russia was behind the hacking. "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless?" Trump said, referring to the thousands of emails and documents robbed from the computers of the Democratic National Committee and from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta.