Obama orders review of Russian hacking during election

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama has ordered a review of potential hacking by Russia designed to influence the outcome of the presidential election in November, Obama's national security advisor announced Friday.

Lisa Monaco told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor news website that Obama has directed America's intelligence community to "conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process".

“'We may have crossed into a new threshold, and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what has happened and to impart some lessons learned," she added.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz later clarified that the review will stretch beyond the past election cycle and review alleged hacking dating to 2008.

"The president asked to go back with what we know now to make sure that we're using every tool possible as a means of due diligence," he said.

Obama expects the results of the review by the conclusion of his term Jan. 20, Monaco said.

The Obama administration has long alleged that Russia is behind some of the most sensational hacking attempts in the U.S., including the breach of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's chief campaign manager, John Podesta, whose emails were leaked in a constant drip in the campaign's final days.

And in early October the intelligence community accused Russia of hacking American political organizations.

While it never specified a party, it was clear that the community was referring to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, which exposed damning information for the party and led to the resignation of former chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Monaco said Obama would remain mindful of the consequences of publicly disclosing the review's findings.

"You want to do so very attentive to not disclosing sources and methods that would impede our ability to identify and attribute malicious actors in the future," she said amid calls from some lawmakers to declassify information related to alleged Russian hacking.

President-elect Donald Trump has consistently denied a Russian role.