Barr contradicts Trump by saying it 'certainly appears' Russia behind cyberattack

[dalton99a]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/21/politics/william-barr-russia-cyberattack/index.html

Barr contradicts Trump by saying it 'certainly appears' Russia behind cyberattack
By Rachel Janfaza, CNN
Updated 1:18 PM ET, Mon December 21, 2020

Washington (CNN) Outgoing Attorney General William Barr on Monday said it "certainly appears" Russia is behind a massive cyberattack on US federal government agencies, an accusation that is in contrast with President Donald Trump, who has avoided condemning Moscow for the incident.

"I agree with Secretary Pompeo's assessment. It certainly appears to be the Russians, but I'm not going to discuss it beyond that," Barr said at a news conference, referring to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's comments last week that "we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity."

It's the latest notable break by Barr from Trump's political agenda. At the same news conference, he said there was no need to appoint a special counsel to investigate President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter, and the attorney general has disputed Trump's false claims of widespread voter fraud.

Barr's comments also underline Trump's extraordinary willingness to dispute top officials in his own administration who have pointed to Russia as a suspect when condemning nefarious activity.

In his first public comments on the cyberattack over the weekend, Trump suggested that "it may be China" that's responsible, even though White House officials had drafted a statement assigning blame to Russia for the attack and were preparing to release it Friday afternoon before being told to stand down, people familiar with the plans have told CNN. Officials initially weren't told why the statement was pulled back.

[empedocles]

1. Mindboggling to try to guess what gymnastic mental stunts key trump players

are going through, day to day - cippilone, meadows, cuccintelli, barr, kushner, . . .

[All sorts of serious pitfalls in store for them].

[kacekwl]

2. Hey dumbass, it doesn't appear so it WAS Russia. You're the AG

of the United States you should know. Everyone else does.