President Vladimir Putin was “personally involved” in a covert Russian effort to intervene in the 2016 US presidential election, NBC News has claimed, citing two unnamed American intelligence officials.
US intelligence officials believe with “a high level of confidence” that Putin became involved in hacking during the American election campaign as part of a “vendetta” against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, NBC News reported on Wednesday.
The anonymous officials, purportedly having direct access to the information, told the news network that Putin personally instructed how material hacked from US Democratic lawmakers was leaked and otherwise used.
The officials argued that the Russian president was not only seeking a “vendetta” against Clinton but also wanted to expose massive corruption in American politics and to “split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn’t depend on the US to be a credible global…