By Jason Newell:

Current relations between the United States and Russia are precarious, however, with Trump’s willingness to approach Russia with a détente strategy, this moves America’s relations with Putin to ostensibly more stable ground. But, there may be more to the motivations of Trump’s foreign policy preferences that aren’t readily apparent. For one, recent revelations highlight the reality that both Obama and Trump received in-depth intelligence briefings months before Election Day. Secondly, a British agent disclosed files on Trump from the Russians that apparently contains damning information on Trump’s finances and personal life. One such event, which isn’t G-Rated, purported to reveal Trump paying prostitutes to pee on a bed where Barack and Michelle had once stayed.

The flood of information can be overwhelming to the novice political enthusiast due to conflicting sources and misleading journalism, or even, patently false information. Therefore, Partisan Cheese found it prudent to reveal the key findings from the Russian Hacking Intelligence Report.



Primary source for all facts and events referenced in the following piece:



http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/06/us/politics/document-russia-hacking-report-intelligence-agencies.html

Report corroborated and given credibility by these key intelligence agencies:



FBI – very confident Russia was involved.

CIA – very confident Russia was involved.

NSA – somewhat confident Russia was involved.



Key note prior to Hacking Document overview: the report doesn’t determine whether or not the hacking had a quantifiable influence on the elections. But, new information is still being gathered.



Key Judgments in Hacking Report



1) Moscow intended to impact US elections – in particular, create negativity surrounding the Hillary Clinton campaign.



Essentially, the Russian government intentionally attempted to takedown Hillary Clinton by hacking DNC servers in order to paint Hillary as an insider.



2) Putin directly involved in directing cyber attacks.



Putin was in direct contact with Russian intelligence with the intention of assisting Trump’s victory.

3) Primary goal was to create lack of faith in US elections.

This could be seen by the constant release of emails relating to the DNC in order to paint the political organization as elitist, and thus, out of touch with average American workers.



4) Putin preferred Trump and wanted to denigrate Hillary Clinton



It was clear that Putin preferred Trump’s domestic policy approach, such as protectionism, rather than Hillary’s neoliberalism.



5) Putin goals evolved over time. Once it looked as if Clinton was going to win, both attacks and hacking intensified.



After Trump’s sexist, audio debacle, Russia increased the frequency of email leaks to refocus attention on Clinton’s supposed nepotism and insider dealings with the DNC.



6) Most recent hacking occurred all the way up to Election Day 2016.



7) Russia paid social media users and “internet trolls” to influence election.



Russian intelligence agencies hired social media agitators to monitor and influence political conversations – most notably, Russia hired incredibly inflammatory individuals to steer conversation in a pro-Trump manner.



8) Russia behind Guccifer leaks.

Russia directly facilitated the leaks of Guccifer 2.0, which revealed damning information on Clinton and the DNC. In particular, the shady collusion against Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders was disclosed.

9) Not a direct impact on voting itself.



Russia never directed an attack on voting machines or polling places.



10) State-run propaganda machine largely responsible.



11) Putin tried to negatively impact current international order.



It’s presumed that Putin favors hopping on the wave of anti-liberalism hitting both Europe and the United States, akin to what occurred with the Brexit.



12) Putin claimed retribution for “Panama Papers” and critique of Russian Olympics (i.e., the anti-gay Russian agenda highlighted by Western powers.)



Putin felt betrayed by the Western Powers’ portrayal of Russia’s domestic social policies during the 2014 Sochi Olympics.



13) Last June, Putin publicly stated that he favored Trump over Clinton



14) Election of Trump was seen by Putin as a better way to combat ISIL.



Russia disliked Obama’s back and forth approach to the Syria Crisis, so, Putin favored Trump’s brusk and combative rhetoric.



15) Agents responsible for hacking are diverse and thus difficult to identify.



Russian intentionally diversified the hackers they chose to infiltrate the DNC in order to dilute responsibility and cover he trail.



This story is still developing…