title:  Russia Hacked The Republican National Committee Too, But Chose Not To Release GOP Data
text: More and more information has come to light which allows U.S. intelligence experts to conclude with  high confidence  that Russia is responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee and releasing that information on Wikileaks. Further, there is no doubt that they did so deliberately to sway the election in Donald Trump s favor.Now, it is coming out that the DNC weren t the only ones hacked by the Russians. According to the New York Times, the Republican National Committee was also hacked. But Russia chose not to release the data they retrieved from the RNC hacks. This is part of the reason intelligence agencies are so certain there was a specific agenda behind Russia s actions, namely to put Trump in the White House.The Times reports:American intelligence agencies have concluded with  high confidence  that Russia acted covertly in the latter stages of the presidential campaign to harm Hillary Clinton s chances and promote Donald J. Trump, according to senior administration officials.They based that conclusion, in part, on another finding   which they say was also reached with high confidence   that the Russians hacked the Republican National Committee s computer systems in addition to their attacks on Democratic organizations, but did not release whatever information they gleaned from the Republican networks.Republicans insist that even though Russia may have tried to hack into their systems, these attempts were unsuccessful. However, one senior administration official said that American intelligence agencies  now have high confidence that they hacked the D.N.C. and the R.N.C., and conspicuously released no documents  from the Republican committee.Intelligence experts have reason to believe that the same hackers who penetrated the DNC also succeeded in breaching the RNC.The revelation that the RNC was also hacked by the Russians comes after a day of bombshells related to the country s meddling in the U.S. election. Friday began with Trump s fellow Republicans announcing plans to probe Russia s involvement with the hack. Not long after, President Obama ordered an investigation into Russia s interference in the election, which he wants to have completed before he leaves office in January.It was also revealed that a secret CIA assessment had confirmed that not only did Russia meddle in our presidential election, but that they did so to help Trump win. It now appears that part of the information intelligence experts used to come to this conclusion was Russia s choice not to release the data they obtained from hacking the Republicans.Featured image via Sean Gallup/Getty Images