Trump accuses New York Times of 'virtual act of Treason' with Russia report [View all]

[Dennis Donovan]

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/448759-trump-accuses-new-york-times-of-virtual-act-of-treason-with-russia?rnd=1560683455

Trump accuses New York Times of 'virtual act of Treason' with Russia report
President Trump late Saturday ramped up his attacks against The New York Times, accusing the newspaper of committing a "virtual act of treason" over its report about the U.S. increasing cyberattacks on Russia's electric power grid.

"Do you believe that the Failing New York Times just did a story stating that the United States is substantially increasing Cyber Attacks on Russia," Trump tweeted. "This is a virtual act of Treason by a once great paper so desperate for a story, any story, even if bad for our Country."

Trump claimed in a separate tweet that the story was "not true!"

"Anything goes with our Corrupt News Media today," he added. "They will do, or say, whatever it takes, with not even the slightest thought of consequence! These are true cowards and without doubt, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!"

Link to tweet

The Times earlier Saturday published a new report about the United States' efforts to penetrate Russia's power grid. The Times, citing current and former government officials, noted that the actions are a warning to Moscow on how the Trump administration is using new authorities to unleash cyber tools in an aggressive manner.

The officials said that the U.S. was deploying computer code within Russia's grid and other targets. The moves are reportedly a part of a broader initiative to combat Russia's hacking in the 2018 midterm elections.

“It has gotten far, far more aggressive over the past year,” one senior intelligence official told the Times. “We are doing things at a scale that we never contemplated a few years ago.”

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