Trump Briefed On Russian Ties To Election Hacks Before Debate: Report

Donald Trump during Sunday's presidential debate not only challenged statements by his opponent - and by US intelligence officials - that Russian government authorities are behind cyberattacks intended to destabilize the US election, but also suggested that there may not be cyberattacks at all. Today, however, NBC News reports that a "senior US intelligence official" told them that Trump was first briefed about Russian involvement in election attacks nearly two months ago.

"To profess not to know at this point is willful misrepresentation," said the official, according to NBC News. "The intelligence community has walked a very thin line in not taking sides, but both candidates have all the information they need to be crystal clear."

Trump during the debate said:  "I notice, anytime anything wrong happens, they like to say the Russians are — [Hillary Clinton] doesn't know if it's the Russians doing the hacking. Maybe there is no hacking."

The NBC News report states that Trump received his first private briefing from intelligence officials Aug. 17. Late last week, the US government formally accused the Russian government of stealing the Democratic National Committee's emails, stating "only Russia's senior-most government officials could have authorized these activities."

Read more at NBC News.