Donald Trump suggests US drop probe into Russian election hacking because 'computers have complicated lives'
President-elect says people should move on because 'nobody knows exactly what's going on'
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Your support makes all the difference.The US should stop investigating whether Russia interfered in the country’s presidential election by hacking Democratic Party computers, Donald Trump has suggested.
The President-elect said it was time to “get on with our lives” rather than try to uncover who was behind a series of election-related cyber-attacks
US intelligence agencies had previously concluded with “high confidence” that Russia had interfered in the election and had done so in a way designed to favour Mr Trump.
Following the initial findings, President Barack Obama ordered a full investigation into the claims. This subsequent report will be handed to the current President before he leaves office on 20 January.
Mr Trump suggested the investigation should be dropped. He said: “We ought to get on with our lives.
“I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on.”
“We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I’m not sure we have the kind of security we need."
The President-elect made the comments at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort, where he is spending the Christmas and New Year break while working on filling the last remaining senior positions in his incoming administration.
Asked about suggestions made by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who ran against Mr Trump for the party’s presidential nomination, that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be personally sanctioned for the cyber-attacks, Mr Trump said: “I don’t know what he’s doing. I haven’t spoken to Senator Graham…as you know he ran against me.”
In the months leading up to the November 8 election, Wikileaks published thousands of leaked documents, including emails sent by Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta. US officials have suggested the information was handed to the website by the Russian state. Both Wikileaks and Russia deny the allegation.
Mr Trump has repeatedly raised doubts about the security services’ findings of Russian involvement in the cyber-attacks.
When that conclusion was released, Mr Trump’s team attacked US intelligence agencies, referring to them as “the same people who said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction”.
He has since called claims of Russian interference “ridiculous” and said: “I don’t believe it”.
Mr Trump’s critics have accused him of being too close to Mr Putin. The pair have repeatedly praised each other and pledged to work more closely together.
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