NSA Leaks Seemingly Contradict Obama's Public Promises On 'Russian Election Hacking'

Last night, courtesy of an NSA contractor named Reality Winner who was arrested for leaking top secret intelligence to The Intercept, we learned that Russian Military Intelligence was supposedly conducting hacking operations on U.S. election infrastructure pretty much right up until election day.  And while those Russian military hackers were smart enough to launch a coup of the most advanced democracy on the face of the planet, luckily they were also dumb enough to leave plenty of clues behind to allow the NSA to track their digital footprints all the way back to the Kremlin. 

Here is an excerpt from our post on the topic last night (see "FBI Arrests NSA Contractor Who Leaked Top Secret "Russian Hacking" Document To The Intercept"):

According to the Intercept, the report is "the most detailed U.S. government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light. It is said to reveal that that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into U.S. voting systems than was previously understood" and "states unequivocally in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, that conducted the cyber attacks described in the document."

The NSA document alleges the GRU hacked the voting systems company using a false Google alert requiring a target to enter login credentials. According to the report, it also attempted a parallel campaign using a false email account meant to be confused with a second company.  And yet, despite all that "sophistication", Russia"s smartest, government hackers somehow left a trail so obvious that it would allow the NSA to conclude in under a month, that Russia"s GRU was behind it. Which is also where the story become questionable because at roughly the same time, another set of alleged Russian hackers, the Shadow Brokers, was in possession (and trying to sell) weaponized CIA methods, allowing any potential hacker to adopt the identity of anyone else, even the CIA or NSA.

And while the latest intelligence leak managed to progress the mainstream media"s "Russian hacking" narrative, it also seems to have potentially ensnared another victim that they would never intentionally attempt to harm, namely President Obama. 

As you may recall, after taking heat from the MSM for failing to intervene against the Russian hackers, at least in a manner sufficient to salvage Hillary"s campaign, Obama held a press conference in December 2016 in which he told reporters that Russian efforts to hack the U.S. election ceased after his September meeting Putin in which he allegedly told the Russian President to "cut it out."

“What I was concerned about in particular was making sure [the DNC hack] wasn’t compounded by potential hacking that could hamper vote counting, affect the actual election process itself."

"And so, in early September when I saw President Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn"t happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out because there were going to be some serious consequences if he didn"t."

"And, in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process.  But, the leaks through WikiLeaks had already occurred."

"So, when I look back, in terms of how we handled it, I think we handled it the way it should have been handled."

Of course, if Obama was being honest when he said that "in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process" after his September 2016 meeting with Putin then perhaps he can explain how/why the NSA had intelligence of a hack targeting election infrastructure as late as "October 31 or November 1?"  Per The Intercept:

"The NSA assessed that this phase of the spear-fishing operation was likely launched on either October 31 or November 1 and sent spear-fishing emails to 122 email addresses “associated with named local government organizations,” probably to officials “involved in the management of voter registration systems.” The emails contained Microsoft Word attachments purporting to be benign documentation for VR Systems’ EViD voter database product line, but which were in reality maliciously embedded with automated software commands that are triggered instantly and invisibly when the user opens the document. These particular weaponized files used PowerShell, a Microsoft scripting language designed for system administrators and installed by default on Windows computers, allowing vast control over a system’s settings and functions..."

As far as we can tell, there are 3 possible explanations which might possibly account for this inconsistency:

1. Obama lied.


2. Obama was incompetent and simply unaware of the latest NSA intelligence when he hosted his press conference in mid-December.


3. Obama had both a "public and private" position on whether or not he actually wanted Hillary in the White House...perhaps he was somewhat more "flexible" on her candidacy than what was portrayed publicly?