US Officials Target American Voters, Not Russia in Explaining Hacking Charge

The US intelligence community’s recent charges that the Russian government was responsible for hacks against Democratic Party targets were primarily intended to inform American voters, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a forum of intelligence professionals on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Clapper repeated the allegations in an October 7 joint statement that he released with US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, which accused senior Russian officials of hacking computers of Democratic Party targets.

"It was mainly addressed to the American electorate and not any foreign nation state," Clapper said in response to a reporter’s question following a speech to the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a private advocacy group.

Clapper said he has been "taken aback" with interest the US presidential election has generated in other countries.

"People everywhere hang on every word of the candidates," Clapper stated. "And by the way some try to do more than just listen in."

US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has gone beyond the statement by claiming that all 17 US intelligence agencies agree that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the attacks.

The statement makes no mention of Putin.

Clinton’s Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has accused Clinton of scapegoating Russia to deflect attention from the emails’ contents, which Trump says contain material for which Clinton should be criminally prosecuted.

Russian officials, including Putin, have denied the allegations and called them absurd.