Obama vows action against Russia over election hacks

The disclosure of emails was embarrassing to the Democratic Party at a crucial point in the election campaign.

The CIA has concluded that Russia’s motivation was to sway the election in favour of Mr Trump, but no evidence has been made public.

Mr Trump has accused the Democrats of fabricating Russian involvement to hide their embarrassment at the election defeat.

He has also long expressed admiration for Mr Putin, and his pick for secretary of state – oil tycoon Rex Tillerson, who has worked closely with the Russian leader – has raised concerns.

Mr Trump tweeted on Thursday: “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”

However, the Obama administration in October directly accused Russia of hacking US political sites and email accounts with the aim of interfering with the upcoming election.

The president-elect has been assembling his new administration and on Thursday he said he would pick lawyer David Friedman to be his ambassador to Israel.

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Source: BBC