Obama Under “Intense Pressure” To Release Evidence Proving Russians Hacked The Election
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Dec 29, 2016
As noted previously, at some point today the White House is set to unveil new sanction, and other retaliatory “measures” against Russia and specifically the Kremlin, in retaliation for what according to a constantly repetitive narrative has been Russian hacking of the US election. Obama will do so by using a 2015 executive order that would allow the president to freeze the US assets of Russians overseas who have engaged in cyber acts, even though such order only applies to actions that have threatened U.S. national security or financial stability, neither of which have yet been invoked in the current “hacking” scandal. Further, per a “senior administration official,” use of the existing law would require (1) actual election infrastructure to be designated as ‘critical infrastructure’ and (2) the administration to prove that such infrastructure was actually “harmed,” conditions which the National Security Council say have not been met.
The problem is that if the administration relies on the 2015 Executive Order to launch this latest round of diplomatic “retaliation”, it will also have to demonstrate some proof that the individuals or entities it names were involved in the scheme, and until now, the White House has provided no documentation to back up its official October assessment that the Russian government was attempting to “interfere” in the U.S. election besides just repeating the allegation over and over and over, as if that somehow makes it true.
Which perhaps is why this morning The Hill writes that the Obama administration is “under intense pressure to release evidence confirming Russian interference in the presidential election before leaving office.”
The Rest…HERE
