The Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper has once again accused Russia of hacking American political organizations in order to interfere with this year’s presidential election.
Clapper told a security summit in Washington, DC, on Thursday that Moscow was behind a series of security breaches of the Democratic Party and its presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign, a practice that he said puts “a new aggressive spin on the political cycle.”
“The emails released on sites like WikiLeaks are consistent with methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts,” the spymaster said. “We wouldn’t have made [the statement] unless we were very confident.”
The comments came as the whistle-blowing website was busy pumping out damning documents surrounding Clinton’s bid for the White House.
The website has published thousands of hacked emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and some of Clinton’s aides.
The 9th batch, which included damning emails from Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, was released on Sunday, shedding more light on the mechanics of her campaign, as well as her time as the secretary of state.
The hackings have prompted warnings from the Clinton campaign against what the candidate and her aides refer to as foreign interference in favor of Clinton’s Republican rival Donald Trump.
Clapper, however, assured voters on Thursday that the hacks would not affect the election process and the ballot counts would remain safe “because they are not connected to the internet.”
The two candidates are so divided over the issue that when it came up during the third presidential debate on Wednesday, Clinton said the reason for the hacks is that Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks a “puppet” US president.
While the Clinton campaign constantly accuses Moscow of trying to get Trump elected, the New York businessman keeps claiming that the whole election is “rigged” in Clinton’s favor.
The Kremlin has constantly denied the American accusations, with Putin saying that Russia “on a state level has never done this,” unlike the US government.
“Don’t we know that official bodies of the United States are spying and eavesdropping on everyone?” Putin told reporters earlier this week.