"Gross negligence by the Democratic National Committee allowed hacking to take place," Donald Trump said on Twitter | AP Photo Trump says 'gross negligence' by DNC enabled hacking; 'no evidence' hacks affected election outcome

President-elect Donald Trump says that "gross negligence" by the Democratic National Committee allowed hackers to penetrate its servers, as he doubled down on his previous claims that there is "no evidence" that hacking affected the election's outcome.

"Gross negligence by the Democratic National Committee allowed hacking to take place," Trump said on Twitter late Friday. "The Republican National Committee had strong defense!"


On Saturday morning, he doubled down on stating that there was "no evidence that hacking affected the election results." He added that the reason the DNC hacking is being discussed is "that the loss by the Dems was so big that they are totally embarrassed!"

The Obama administration officially blamed Russian authorities and President Vladimir Putin for repeated cyber attacks during the 2016 presidential campaign, declaring in a report that the Kremlin sought to "undermine" the U.S. democratic process and "harm" Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy.

"We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election," said the report, which is a declassified version of a longer, classified document the CIA, FBI and NSA prepared at President Barack Obama's request, and which Trump was briefed on earlier Friday.

Trump said in a statement after the intelligence briefing that, “While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines.”

According to the report, Russian officials developed "a clear preference" for Trump and ultimately "aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him."

Trump on Thursday questioned the DNC's reported refusal to allow intelligence agencies to conduct an independent review of their computers.

"The Democratic National Committee would not allow the FBI to study or see its computer info after it was supposedly hacked by Russia," the president-elect tweeted. "So how and why are they so sure about hacking if they never even requested an examination of the computer servers? What is going on?"

Trump's Friday tweet was posted shortly after Fox News host and Trump supporter Sean Hannity decried "gross negligence" by the DNC in his show's opening monologue.