Story highlights Most of the GOP material was not released

The intel community has growing confidence the hacking was meant to help Trump

Washington (CNN) Russian hackers breached accounts of GOP individuals and organizations prior to the election -- including GOP House members, thought leaders and non-profits tied to the Republican party -- a former senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation told CNN Monday.

Since most of the GOP material was not released, whereas the emails of Democratic Party groups and officials were made public, the intelligence community has growing confidence that hacking of US entities was meant to steer the US election toward Trump.

In addition, there is evidence that entities connected to the Russian government were bankrolling "troll farms" that spread fake news about Clinton, according to the former official.

Investigators also found digital footprints of individuals tied to the Russian government who had been on intelligence agencies' radar before, as was acknowledged when the intelligence agency put out a public statement in October.

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All of these findings provide a greater understanding of what the intelligence community relied on to assess Russia's intentions.

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