This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A top national security official told lawmakers on Tuesday he had not been directed by Donald Trump to disrupt Russian efforts to meddle in US elections, and that Vladimir Putin had come to the conclusion there was “little price to pay” for such actions.

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Adm Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency and chief of US Cyber Command, told the Senate armed services committee: “Clearly, what we’ve done hasn’t been enough.”

Asked if he had been granted the authority by Trump to counter Russian cyber-attacks at source, Rogers said: “No, I have not.”

He added: “I need a policy decision that indicates there is specific direction to do that. The president ultimately would make this decision in accordance with a recommendation from the secretary of defense.”

Trump has dismissed investigations into Russian interference in the US election – and potential collusion between Trump aides and Moscow – as a partisan exercise.

The president spent part of Tuesday morning tweeting quotes from conservatives who defended his campaign on Fox News. The president capped off the tweet storm by writing: “WITCH HUNT!”

Trump has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the consensus of the US intelligence community and its allies that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election in an attempt to defeat his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The president also insisted last week that “the facts” proved he had been tougher on Russia than his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Rogers had a different view, suggesting to lawmakers that the Russians “haven’t paid a price, at least, that has significantly changed their behavior”.

Rogers cited Trump’s decision in January to delay the implementation of new sanctions against Russia that Congress passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis last year.

“I believe that President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion there’s little price to pay here, and that therefore I can continue this activity,” Rogers said.

“Everything, both as the director of NSA and what I see on the cyber command side, leads me to believe that if we don’t change the dynamic here, this is going to continue and 2016 won’t be viewed as something isolated.

“This is something that will be sustained over time.”

The Trump administration delayed sanctions against Russia even as top intelligence officials testified that Moscow was seeking to disrupt the 2018 midterm elections.

Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, has told lawmakers US officials he expects Russia to again spread propaganda and utilize social media to disseminate fake news, “to try to build on its wide range of operations and exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States”.

Congress passed the sanctions against Russia last August, in response to Moscow’s election meddling in the US and other countries, as well as its aggression in Ukraine. The Trump administration tried to weaken the legislation but was thwarted by Congress, forcing the president to sign the measures into law.

Democrats in Congress are now seeking to force Trump to implement the sanctions.

“We need to put our foot to the gas pedal,” Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia who introduced a bill in the House, said on Tuesday.

“If the president is not going to do it, then Congress needs to.”