No evidence that Russia influences US election: Trump spokesman

The team of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Monday there was no evidence to suggest that Russian hacking had influenced the 2016 U.S. election.

"The way the mainstream media is playing this up is that they (Russia) had an influence in the election. There is zero evidence that they actually influenced the election," said Trump's spokesman Sean Spicer in an interview with FOX News.

In another interview with CNN, Spicer accused the Obama administration of "jumping to conclusions before we have a final report," calling the behavior "irresponsible."

The Obama administration last October officially blamed Russia for hacking U.S. political institutions and persons to interfere with the U.S. election process, an accusation immediately dismissed as "nonsense" by Moscow.

The episode reached its climax last December when the U.S. daily Washington Post uncovered a secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assessment report in which the agency claimed that Russia's meddling in the U.S. election was aimed at helping Republican Donald Trump win the White House.

According to the CIA assessment, Russians were believed to have hacked both Republican and Democratic organizations, though only damaging documents from Democrats were leaked to the public.

Russia had for long repeatedly denied being behind the cyber attacks which led to the leaking of damaging material which dogged Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton till the Election Day.

Three weeks before leaving office, U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday struck back at Russia over alleged election hacking.

Nine Russian entities and individuals, including two Russian intelligence services, were sanctioned for their alleged interfering with the U.S. election, Obama said in a statement.

In addition, the U.S. State Department on Thursday announced expelling of 35 Russian government officials from the United States, calling them "acting in a manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status."

Two Russian government-owned compounds, one in the U.S. State of Maryland and the other in New York, would also soon be shuttered, according to the State Department.

source: Xinhua