Trump-Free 2016 Russian Election-Hacking Revelations: Virtually Missed By Nearly All of Washington

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What the Post reveals, in passing, is that the Obama administration's charge that Russia hacked the DNC, Podesta et al. wasn't based merely on some remote analysis of the digital trail left behind by Fancy Bear, Cozy Bear and other units allegedly linked to Russia's FSB and GRU spy agencies... the Post article, in its second sentence, states that the administration's conclusion was based on "sourcing deep inside the Russian government." In other words, the United States last year had either human collectors (i.e., spies) or electronic access inside the very heart of Moscow's inner circle -- which is how they learned that Putin himself was involved.

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The Washington Post provides a depressing tick-tock on how the Obama administration responded as the scope of the Russian attack emerged: direct warnings to the FSB and then to Putin himself, kicking out alleged Russian spies, closing Russian spy facilities outside Washington, imposing sanctions, etc. But the saddest part of the story is that, when the Obama administration had a chance to sound a loud alarm about Russia's role when it mattered -- before November 8th -- they didn't. Said one former top official quoted by the Post: "I feel like we sort of choked."