Hillary Clinton claimed on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered hacking attacks against her campaign and the Democratic National Committee “because he has a personal beef against me”, The New York Times reported, citing comments Clinton made to a group of donors in Manhattan.
Saying the alleged hacking attacks were intended “to undermine our democracy”, Clinton told the donors that Putin had never forgiven her for the accusation she made in 2011, when she was secretary of state, that parliamentary elections his country held that year were rigged.
“Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people, and that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election,” Clinton claimed, according to The New York Times.
“This is not just an attack on me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it. This is an attack against our country. We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation,” she added.
President Barack Obama recently demanded a full investigation into alleged Russian involvement in the hacking of senior Clinton aides’ email accounts, after a report by the CIA concluded that the former Cold War rival had intervened in the election on behalf of President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump has rejected the claims that his election win was enabled by Russian hackers, telling Fox News this week that Democrats bitter with the results of the election were inventing excuses for their defeat.
“It's just another excuse. I don't believe it,” said Trump. “Every week it's another excuse. We had a massive landslide victory, as you know, in the Electoral College.”
In her remarks on Thursday, Clinton also claimed her election defeat was also assisted by the release of a letter by FBI Director James Comey, shortly before the election, disclosing new questions about emails handled by her private server.
“Swing-state voters made their decisions in the final days breaking against me because of the FBI letter from Director Comey,” said Clinton, according to The New York Times.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)