The blockbuster declaration is sure to put pressure on the Obama administration to publicly retaliate against Russia. | Getty Obama administration accuses Russian government of election-year hacking

Signaling a low-point in Washington-Moscow relations perhaps not seen since the Cold War, the Obama administration on Friday ended months of speculation and blamed Russia for deploying its hackers to meddle with the U.S. election.

The accusation came at the end of a week that saw the United States halt negotiations with Russia over joint operations in Syria targeting extremist groups.


The public finger pointing also bows to weeks of pressure from Capitol Hill and national security experts, who have lambasted the White House for staying silent about the series of hacks that have roiled the Democratic party, exposed the inner machinations of political organizations, revealed the private exchanges of high-ranking officials and fueled doubts about the electoral system's integrity.

On Friday, the administration broke that silence.

"These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process," said Jeh Johnson, the secretary of homeland security, and James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, in a statement. "Such activity is not new to Moscow — the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there."

"We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities," he added.

The administration urged "state and local election officials to be vigilant and seek cybersecurity assistance" from the Department of Homeland Security.

The blockbuster allegation is expected to further erode the already-hostile relations between Russia and the U.S.

Yury Melnik, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington, blasted the Obama administration for making the accusation. "This is another piece of nonsense! Putin's website is attacked by tens of thousands of hackers daily. Many attacks are traced to the US territory," he said in a statement. "But we don't go blaming them on the White House or Langley every time."

Friday's allegation will also ramp up pressure on the Obama administration — and the international community — to publicly retaliate against Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin — whose birthday, coincidentally, is Friday — has denied any hand in the digital assault.

A senior administration official said via email that the public shouldn’t expect to learn what action the president might take in response.

“The president has made it clear that we will take action to protect our interests, including in cyberspace, and we will do so at a time and place of our choosing,” the official said. “Consistent with the practice we have adopted in the past, the public should not assume that they will necessarily know what actions have been taken or what actions we will take.”

In recent weeks, lawmakers have sought to push the administration to formally blame Moscow for the attacks. Last month, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence committees, said they had concluded Russia was behind the breaches, citing their intelligence briefings.

"I applaud the administration's decision to publicly name Russia as the source of hacks into U.S. political institutions," Schiff said in a statement Friday. "We should now work with our European allies, who have been the victim of similar and even more malicious cyber interference by Russia, to develop a concerted response that protects our institutions and deters further meddling."

A bipartisan group of House members this week also sent a letter to the director of national intelligence, calling on the Obama administration to publicly release the results of its investigation.

"All of us should be gravely concerned when a foreign power like Russia seeks to undermine our democratic institutions, and we must do everything in our power to guard against it," Schiff said.

Added Feinstein: “Attempted hacking of our election system is intolerable, and it’s critical to convince the Russian government to cease these activities. If it does not, we must develop a strong response.”

These calls were echoed by lawmakers across the aisle, as well.

“Today was just the first step — Russia must face serious consequences,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) in a statement. “Moscow orchestrated these hacks because Putin believes Soviet-style aggression is worth it.”

An anonymous senior administration official told The New York Times that the White House moved to publicly accuse Russia partly in response to this pressure. The administration also issued its response on Friday out of fear that making such allegations closer to the election may be perceived as a political move, the official added.

The conclusion from the Obama administration matches those of several private cybersecurity firms that initially studied the breaches and pointed the finger at the Kremlin from the start.

One of those companies, Fidelis, told POLITICO on Friday that intelligence agencies had gone through much of the same process as Fidelis had, investigating the digital signatures of the hacks and comparing them to an extensive database of digital strategies used by well-known foreign hacking groups.

After several of the hacks all bore similar markings affiliated with prominent Russian-backed hackers, any other explanation became “implausible,” said John Bambenek, threat systems manager at Fidelis.

“My read is they were as comfortable as we were," he added.

Fidelis tied the DNC and DCCC intrusions to a specific Russian hacking group known as "Fancy Bear," which researchers say has ties to Russian intelligence services.

The administration's statement links to Russia a series of leakers — including sites like DC Leaks and the hacker persona "Guccifer 2.0" — who have dumped emails online from the DNC, DCCC and others.

"With this acknowledgment, Republicans from Donald Trump to Speaker Paul Ryan must recognize this crime for the national security threat that it is, and respond appropriately,” said DCCC spokeswoman Meredith Kelly.

The fallout from the leaked emails led to the resignation of former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, after the internal DNC messages revealed evidence of bias against Sen. Bernie Sanders' insurgent presidential campaign against eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Other online dumps have also embarrassed a number of high-profile candidates and government officials, such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who criticized Clinton and Trump in a leaked cache of personal emails.

And more leaks are coming, said interim DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile.

"We fully expect future releases of information that was stolen and likely manipulated by the Russian government as a result of these cyberattacks," she said in a Friday statement calling on Congress to launch a bipartisan investigation.

Suspected Russian hackers have also probed a number of state voter registration databases. But the intelligence community statement stopped short of blaming Moscow for these attacks.

“Some states have also recently seen scanning and probing of their election-related systems, which in most cases originated from servers operated by a Russian company,” the statement reads. “However, we are not now in a position to attribute this activity to the Russian Government."

The administration sought to quell fears that the news meant foreign hackers could actually tilt the presidential vote tally. GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has fueled such concerns by repeatedly vowing the election could be "rigged."

Investigators concluded it "would be extremely difficult for someone, including a nation-state actor, to alter actual ballot counts or election results by cyber attack or intrusion.”

Still, longtime Democratic operative Jim Manley told POLITICO the official allegation "sets up a very ugly dynamic for November," giving the sense that Moscow may be meddling on Election Day.

"Russia is directly attacking our democracy," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who had been stumping for a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the issue, told POLITICO.

"It’s important that the American people are aware of what the Russian government is trying to do," she added.

The news hits just days before the presidential candidates are slated to square off in their second debate.

Trump and Clinton have long split on their theory of who was orchestrating the election hacks.

For weeks, Clinton's team has been directly blaming Moscow, arguing that it wants to tilt the election in favor of Trump, who has praised Putin's leadership skills.

"We know that Russian intelligence services hacked into the DNC and we know that they arranged for a lot of those emails to be released and we know that Donald Trump has shown a very troubling willingness to back up Putin, to support Putin," Clinton said as far back as August.

But Trump has repeatedly downplayed Russian involvement, most prominently at last week’s presidential debate.

"It could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people," he said. "It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds."

Clinton's campaign on Friday immediately pounced on Trump's equivocation.

"Trump's initial reaction to the hack in July was to invite further intrusions by the Russians," said Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, referring to what Trump claimed was a sarcastic invitation for Russian hackers to uncover emails Clinton's had deleted. "Even after he was reportedly briefed on the very findings that were just announced publicly by U.S. government officials, he stood on a debate stage one week ago and played dumb about Russia's role in this hack."

"The only remaining question is why Donald Trump continues to make apologies for the Russians," Podesta added.

The revelation will force the both candidates to revisit the issue, and Democrats are already anticipating Clinton using it as an attack line at Sunday's debate.

Trump is "going to be called out for this," said Manley, a former spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Conversely, the Obama administration will likely face allegations that it timed its announcement to help bolster Clinton's White House bid just days before an important debate.

Michael Allen, the former GOP staff director for the House Intelligence Committee, said he questioned the White House’s role in pushing the intelligence community to issue a statement like this so close to the election.

“Everything is perceived through a political lens this close to an election," he told POLITICO. "I think we have to accept it’s probably true but then wonder about the process by which it came out today."

A Democratic operative close to the Clinton campaign on Friday fought back against that narrative.

"I think if you look at the timeline, if [Obama] was trying to do her a favor, I think he’d have done it faster.”

“There’s good evidence. They’ve done a thorough investigation,” the source added. “They’re highly confident. They’re not jumping to conclusions.”

Cory Bennett, Darren Samuelsohn and Martin Matishak contributed to this report.