washington<u+2014>two senior u.s. intelligence officials reiterated thursday their belief that the russian government stole and then leaked emails in an effort to interfere with the november elections, countering the repeated insistence from republican presidential candidate donald trump that no one knows who carried out the attacks. adm. michael rogers, director of the national security agency, said at a conference in baltimore that <u+201c>we have acknowledged that the russians were behind the penetrations,<u+201d> referring to hacks carried out against the democratic national committee, some of its affiliates and clinton campaign aides. <u+201c>we need to step back as a nation and think about what are the implications of that?<u+201d> adm. rogers said. <u+201c>is that something we are comfortable with?<u+201d> earlier this month, the u.s. intelligence community issued a joint statement accusing senior russian leaders of carrying out an operation that has stolen computer files and then leaked more than 40,000 emails and other documents through three entities, including wikileaks. russian officials at first denied any involvement, but recently their statements have evolved to say it is irrelevant who carried out the hacks, as long as the information was made public in a way that informs american voters about the inner workings of the political process. republican vice-presidential nominee mike pence and house speaker paul ryan (r., wis.) have both agreed that it appears russia is behind the operation. but mr. trump has repeatedly said that it is unclear who carried out the thefts. in wednesday<u+2019>s presidential debate, mr. trump objected when democratic nominee hillary clinton said 17 u.s. intelligence agencies have attributed the hacks to moscow. <u+201c>she has no idea whether it<u+2019>s russia, china or anybody else,<u+201d> mr. trump said. he added, <u+201c>our country has no idea.<u+201d> adm. rogers wasn<u+2019>t the only official to refute that assertion thursday. speaking in washington, director of national intelligence james clapper wouldn<u+2019>t reveal why u.s. officials have such a high degree of confidence that russian officials are behind the hacking, but he said their certainty was unwavering. <u+201c>i am not going to discuss the underlying evidentiary basis for it,<u+201d> mr. clapper said. <u+201c>when we say we are confident, i think it speaks for itself.<u+201d> u.s. intelligence officials say they based their conclusion on digital forensics and the fact that the way the information was leaked closely mirrors the way russia has tried to interfere in elections in europe. the white house has said the u.s. will respond to the apparent russian operation in a way that is <u+201c>proportional.<u+201d> officials have declined to say whether that would consist of a cyberattack, new economic sanctions, diplomatic curbs or some other action. russia<u+2019>s role in the u.s. election was a heated issue in wednesday<u+2019>s debate . mrs. clinton accused mr. trump of being a <u+201c>puppet<u+201d> of russian president vladimir putin. <u+201c>no puppet,<u+201d> mr. trump shot back at mrs. clinton. <u+201c>you<u+2019>re the puppet.<u+201d> write to damian paletta at damian.paletta@wsj.com
intelligence officials reiterate russian responsibility for recent hacks     - wsj
damian paletta