text: RTH: You are again repeating a false storyline regarding Russian influence on the outcome of the election. The intelligence agencies did not, as you insist, say whether or not they believed the Russians affected the outcome. They saw no evidence, but, and this is important, they weren’t looking for evidence the voter tally was compromised. The absence of evidence does not prove a negative. 
   
  Here is James Clapper’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on May 8: 
  
  KENNEDY: Do you believe that the Russians did in fact influence the outcome of the election? Director?
  CLAPPER: In our intelligence community assessment, we made the point that we could not make that call. The intelligence community has neither the authority, the expertise or the resources to make that judgment. The only thing we said was we saw no evidence of influencing voter tallies at any of the 50 states. But we were not in a position to judge whether -- what actual outcome on the election.