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President Barack Obama on Thursday authorized a series of sanctions against Russia for intervening in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and warned of more action to come.

When a United States President reaches for the “red phone,” the reason behind the message MUST be worthy of such a communication. Obama used the red phone to contact Vladimir Putin to demand Russia stop inserting itself into the 2016 presidential race– which they didn’t do! Apparently, unsupported claims of hacking into the Democrat Party emails was enough for Obama to call Putin on the emergency line which has always been reserved for far more important things, like discussions of acts of war. At least one of Obama’s senior advisers urged him to pick up the red phone and call...

The White House is expected to announce a series of retaliatory measures against Russia for meddling in the U.S. election as soon as Thursday, CNN reported. The package is expected to include sanctions, covert cyber measures and diplomatic censure, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. Officials told CNN that the administration is also expected to name individuals associated with a Russian disinformation campaign that used information stolen from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other Democratic organizations to damage Hillary Clinton's campaign.

The Obama administration is finalizing plans to punish Russia for interfering with the recent U.S. election with an announcement could come as soon as Thursday. A senior administration official tells CBS news they will likely name individuals associated with Moscow’s efforts to hack Democratic organizations in the run-up to the presidential election. Officials have said sanctions would likely target leaders in Russia’s largest intelligence agency - which they believe was behind the cyberattacks aimed at helping President-elect Donald Trump -- and operating with President Vladimir Putin’s blessing.

The Obama administration is under intense pressure to release evidence confirming Russian interference in the presidential election before leaving office. The administration up until now has provided little documentation to back up its official October assessment that the Russian government was attempting to “interfere” in the U.S. election.   Nor has it corroborated subsequent leaks from anonymous officials contending that the CIA believes the campaign was an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to ensure Donald Trump’s victory.   President Obama has ordered the intelligence community to produce a complete review of its findings before Trump takes office on Jan....

Did the Russians really rig the 2016 US election? The Daily Telegraph's Tim Blair exposes 'the truth' - You bet they did! Secret documents recently discovered in a bin behind a Kremlin-district 24-hour cabbage and tobacco store reveal for the first time the devious extent of Russian interference. These plans were decades in the making. Read on, as never-before-seen communiques between Russian agents Sergei Potrov and Dimitri Bienko outline the wicked plot – beginning in 1947, on the day of Hillary Clinton’s birth: Dearest Dimitri I am pleased to report that phase one of Operation Cankles is total success! Soviet...

In the extensive report on the massive Russian-backed operation to hack American political and government severs—including a successful hack of the Democratic National Committee's server—the paper reveals that President Barack Obama had been "briefed regularly" on Russia's effort to target servers at the State Department, the White House, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Here's the Times: Mr. Obama was briefed regularly on all this, but he made a decision that many in the White House now regret: He did not name Russians publicly, or issue sanctions. There was always a reason: fear of escalating a cyberwar, and concern that...

Press Releases 12.15.16 Pelosi Statement Calling for an Independent Investigation of Putin’s Interference in U.S. Elections San Francisco – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released this statement today reiterating the need for a bipartisan, independent review following recent reports of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s personal involvement in U.S. elections. Pelosi, the longest serving Member of the House Intelligence Committee, is a former Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “Elections determine the future our children will inherit. Given the alarming magnitude, seriousness and scope of Russia’s efforts to undermine U.S. elections, we must have an independent, bipartisan investigation to protect...

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch stated Thursday that the United States intelligence community has not found any evidence of “technical interference” on the part of the Russian government on voting machines used in the 2016 election. Lynch instead referred to Russia hacking into the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS: Our source is not the Russian government. SEAN HANNITY: So let me be clear: Russia did not give you the Podesta documents or anything from the DNC. ASSANGE: Correct.

President Barack Obama on Thursday vowed retaliatory action against Russia for its meddling in the US presidential election. "I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing," Obama told National Public Radio. Describing potential countermeasures by the US, the President said "some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be." He said he directly confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin about a potential US response, and said his...

Hillary Clinton believes that Vladimir Putin was allegedly involved in the hack of the Democratic National Committee because of a longtime grudge he has held against her. The former presidential nominee made the claims at a party meant to thank her millionaire donors in New York Thursday night, according to two donors who were there. They said that Clinton blamed the grudge on comments she made that were critical of Russia’s parliamentary elections in 2011, which she said were not free or fair.

The head of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is “alarmed” the FBI concurred with the CIA’s assessment regarding Russia’s alleged interference in the presidential election without informing Congress. The CIA has not issued any public statements, and all assertions are based on anonymous leaks. Congress and the federal government are both currently engaged in concurrent investigations into the allegations that Russia wanted President-elect Donald Trump to win the presidency. FBI Director James Comey agreed with the CIA’s assessment, according to a Washington Post report Friday, however, earlier reports citing lawmakers briefed by the FBI stated the FBI did...

The CIA is in really big trouble now over the whole Russia hack thing. Now Congress is coming after them, not because they lied about it, but because they LEAKED a “top secret” document about it. Congressman Peter King told ABC News, “WE HAVE SUPPOSEDLY [CIA DIRECTOR] JOHN BRENNAN LEAKING INFORMATION TO THE WASHINGTON POST, TO A BIASED NEWSPAPER LIKE THE NEW YORK TIMES — FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS THAT HE’S NOT TELLING THE [HOUSE] INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROLXh_llpzg

President Barack Obama reportedly told Russian President Vladimir Putin in October that directly interfering with the U.S. election could result in an "armed conflict." According to NBC News, Obama opted to use the red phone to contact Moscow directly, a communication system that dates back to the Cold War. It's not an actual telephone, but instead sends a secure email message between the two countries. "International law, including the law for armed conflict, applies to actions in cyberspace," part of the Oct. 31 message read, according to NBC. "We will hold Russia to those standards."

"They came after us absolutely every day until the end of the election. They tried to hack into our system repeatedly," Brazile told ABC's Martha Raddatz in an exclusive interview on "This Week" Sunday. Obama said at a press conference Friday that Russia's "tampering" with the U.S. election process stopped in early September after he spoke to Putin at an international conference.

"In addition to a fear of sparking a wider cyber-conflict and an attempt to save talks with Russia over Syria, the administration did not want to give Donald Trump reason to cry foul following what they were certain would be a Hillary Clinton victory."

The Hillary Clinton campaign and its allies, rallying behind the contention that cyberwarfare played a role in swinging the presidential election for Donald Trump, are now taking parting shots at the Obama administration, the intelligence community and the media for failing to treat the Russian hacking threat with sufficient urgency. Many Clinton confidants place blame for the Electoral College defeat squarely at the feet of FBI Director James B. Comey, arguing that his letter to Congress 11 days before the election reopening the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s private email server turned the tide decisively in favor of Mr. Trump. But...

The Left’s crusade against Republican presidential electors is kicking into high gear even as the CIA-attributed story that Russian hackers won the White House for Donald Trump is going up in flames. There is still no evidence –at least none that has been made publicly available– that the Russian government or Russian-backed cyber militias hacked anything to help Trump win the election but that’s not halting the Left’s efforts to delegitimize his presidency before it even begins. Against this backdrop, members of the Electoral College are preparing to gather this Monday in the 50 states and the District of Columbia...

Hillary Clinton on Thursday night attributed her defeat to a convergence of two “unprecedented” events: the release of a letter by James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, shortly before the election, and what she called an “attack against our country” by the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. Mrs. Clinton said the letter Mr. Comey released disclosing new questions about emails handled by her private server had cost her close races in several battleground states. “Swing-state voters made their decisions in the final days breaking against me because of the F.B.I. letter from Director Comey,” she said. The Russians, she said,...