(CNN) The White House strongly suggested Monday that Donald Trump was the beneficiary of Russian meddling in the US election, pointing to Trump's own ties to Russia as evidence of Moscow's intentions.

"You didn't need a security clearance to figure out who benefited from malicious Russian cyberactivity," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest during a briefing with reporters Monday. "The President-elect didn't call it into question, he called on Russia to hack his opponent. He called on Russia to hack Secretary Clinton. So he certainly had a pretty good sense of whose side this cyberactivity was coming down on."

"The last several week so the election were focused on a discussion of emails that had been hacked and leaked by the Russians. These were emails from the (Democratic National Committee) and John Podesta, not from the (Republican National Committee) and Stephen Bannon," Earnest said, naming the campaign chairmen of the Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigns.

Earnest said his assessment was bolstered by perceived tied between Russia and Trump, which he said would lead to a conclusion that Russia was motivated to help him win the election.

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