This story is breaking, and it’s a bombshell:

From The New York Times:

Two weeks before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump was shown highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered complex cyberattacks to sway the 2016 American election. The evidence included texts and emails from Russian military officers and information gleaned from a top-secret source close to Mr. Putin, who had described to the C.I.A. how the Kremlin decided to execute its campaign of hacking and disinformation. Mr. Trump sounded grudgingly convinced, according to several people who attended the intelligence briefing. But ever since, Mr. Trump has tried to cloud the very clear findings that he received on Jan. 6, 2017, which his own intelligence leaders have unanimously endorsed. The shifting narrative underscores the degree to which Mr. Trump regularly picks and chooses intelligence to suit his political purposes. That has never been more clear than this week.

The Times points out that Trump not only ignored the findings, he also sought to shift blame away from Putin the very same day:

After the briefings, Mr. Trump issued a statement later that day that sought to spread the blame for the meddling. He said “Russia, China and other countries, outside groups and countries” were launching cyberattacks against American government, businesses and political organizations — including the D.N.C. Still, Mr. Trump said in his statement, “there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election.” Mr. Brennan later told Congress that he had no doubt where the attacks were coming from.

The story also emphasizes just how dire a threat the Russians have become — a fact that makes Trump’s blasé attitude toward the attacks that much more puzzling:

In March, the Department of Homeland Security declared that Russia was targeting the American electric power grid, continuing to riddle it with malware that could be used to manipulate or shut down critical control systems. Intelligence officials have described it to Congress as a chief threat to American security. Just last week, Mr. Coats said that current cyberthreats were “blinking red” and called Russia the “most aggressive foreign actor, no question.”

Read the whole thing. It’s bonkers.

It almost feels like Mueller’s investigation is superfluous at this point. Collusion, treason, ass-kissing. They’re all out in the open now.

The only question left is, what will we do about it? And more to the point, what will our country’s craven GOP congressional members do?

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