Secretary of State John Kerry wouldn't accuse Russian president Vladimir Putin of masterminding hacks on Democrats to throw the U.S. presidential election today.

He cast doubt on a report claiming that Putin personally ordered cyber attacks on Democratic operatives Thursday afternoon, using air quotes as he talked about the anonymous 'intelligence officials' behind the leaking.

'Look, I am not going to start making comments at this point. I haven’t commented on this publicly because of the job I do,' Kerry said. 'I’m not going to comment on anonymous reports from intelligence officials that are not identified that have quotes around the concept of intelligence officials.'

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Secretary of State John Kerry wouldn't accuse Russian president Vladimir Putin of masterminding hacks on Democrats to throw the U.S. presidential election today

US intelligence officials believe 'a high level of confidence' that Putin was personally involved in the election hack, two senior officials told NBC News.

Putin not only ordered the hack but controlled the way that the materials obtained in the operation from was leaked and used during the election, they said.

One official claimed that Putin did this as a 'vendetta' against Hillary Clinton in the beginning, but then turned it into an exercise attempting to hint at corruption in US politics to 'split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn't depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore.'

The president's press secretary wouldn't affirm Putin's direct involvement Thursday when he was asked about the intelligence.

'I do not have an additional intelligence assessment to share from the podium,' press secretary Josh Earnest said during his daily briefing.

Earnest said intelligence officials are 'apparently' calling up reporters and telling them, anyway. 'I am not in a position to confirm them,' he said of those reports.

'It's particularly concerning in those circumstances when people are sharing information that's classified or sensitive. But this is not a new phenomenon,' he added.

President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell this afternoon that he suspects that Putin was directly involved in the cyber crime.

'I don't think things happen in the Russian government of this consequence without Vladimir Putin knowing about it,' Ben Rhodes said. 'Everything we know about how Russia operates and how Putin controls that government would suggest that... ultimately, Vladimir Putin is the official responsible for the actions of the Russian government.'

US intelligence officials believe with 'a high level of confidence' that Vladimir Putin (above on December 1) was personally involved in efforts to meddle in the election

The CIA has already offered a 'high confidence' assessment the Russians did this because they wanted to elect Donald Trump.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the claims of Thursday however, saying they were nothing more than 'laughable nonsense.'

'I'm not surprised,' Obama's spokesman, Earnest, said in response.

The White House separately claimed this week that Trump knew Russia was interfering in the election, despite his claims to the contrary.

Trump responded to this on Twitter Thursday morning, writing: 'If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House waite [sic] so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?'

In October, all 17 intelligence agencies signed onto a statement attributing the Democratic National Committee hack to Russia

In that statement they also said that 'only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.'

That statement did not however explicitly name Putin as having any role in the hack.

Earnest said Thursday it's 'pretty obvious' which high-ranking official the statement was referring to.

Putin is reported to have done this in revenge against Hillary Clinton for publicly questioning the integrity of Russian parliamentary elections back in 2011 (Putin and Clinton above in 2012)

'My reading of it was that it was not intended to be subtle,' Earnest said Thursday.

'The reference to senior most officials in Russia would lead me to conclude that, based on my personal reading, and not based on any knowledge that I have that may be classified or otherwise, it's pretty obvious...that they were referring to the senior most govt official in Russia.

Putin is said never to have forgiven Clinton publicly questioning the Russian system and integrity of parliamentary elections back in 2011 while serving as secretary of state.

He also accused her of encouraging street protests with her statements at the time

Michael McFaul, who was ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, said of the hack, 'It is most certainly consistent with the Putin that I have watched and used to work with when I was an ambassador and in the government.'

'He has had a vendetta against Hillary Clinton, that has been known for a long time because of what she said about his elections back in the parliamentary elections of 2011.

'He wants to discredit American democracy and make us weaker in terms of leading the liberal democratic order. And most certainly he likes President-elect Trump's views on Russia,' the former diplomat said.

The CIA has concluded that Russia tried to interfere in order to elect Trump (above), a claim the President-elect has rejected

U.S. officials have now begun a probe of Putin's personal wealth in preparation for any possible retaliation by the Russian leader.

They believe that Putin's network controls around $85 billion worth of assets, though the CIA would not comment on that number or the probe.

And U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for a formal congressional investigation into the hacking.

Obama's spokesman hinted at Trump's possible knowledge of the situation this week, saying: 'There's ample evidence that was known long before the election, and even in most cases long before October, about the Trump campaign in Russia, everything from the Republican nominee himself calling on Russia to hack his opponent.

'It might be an indication that he was obviously aware and concluded, based on whatever facts or sources he was - he had available to him, that Russia was involved, and their involvement was having a negative impact on his opponent's campaign.'

He continued: 'That's why he was encouraging them to keep doing it. You had the Republican nominee refer to the president of Russia as a strong leader.

'The Republican nominee chose a campaign chair that had had extensive, lucrative, personal, financial ties to the Kremlin and it was obvious to those who were covering the race that the hack and leak strategy that had been operationalized was not being equally applied to the two parties and to the two campaigns.

'There was one side that was bearing the brunt of that strategy and another side that was clearly benefiting from it,' Earnest said.

Trump has rejected the CIA's conclusion that Russia tried to interfere with the presidential election and blamed 'very embarrassed' Democrats for the public release of the assessment.

The president-elect called the CIA's assessment 'ridiculous' while speaking to Fox News in an interview that aired on Sunday.

'I don't believe it. I think it's ridiculous,' said the president elect.

Earnest said Tuesday that Trump must of known.

'He called on Russia to hack his opponent. He called on Russia to attack Secretary Clinton. So, he certainly had a pretty good sense of which side this activity was coming down on,' he said.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway lashed out at the Obama spokesman on Thursday during an appearance on Fox & Friends.

'That is just remarkable. That is breathtaking. I guess he's auditioning to be a political pundit after his job is over soon,' she said.

'That is incredibly disappointing to hear from the podium of the White House press secretary...he essentially stated that the president-elect had knowledge of this, maybe even fanned the flames.'