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Officials Confirm Some Russian Hacking Allegations As New Ones Come In

Officials confirmed Russia targeted 21 states' election information. A day later, a new report said they may have been more successful than we knew.

Officials Confirm Some Russian Hacking Allegations As New Ones Come In
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Russia's election interference might've been worse than we knew.

A U.S. official told Time that Russia's penetration of voting systems allowed hackers to access voter information and alter voter rolls.

The report comes just one day after Homeland Security officials confirmed to the Senate intelligence committee that Russian hackers oversaw a widespread election hacking campaign.

"As of right now, we have evidence of 21 states — election related systems in 21 states that were targeted," Jeanette Manfra of the Department of Homeland Security said.

Obama Officials Worried Alarm Over Russian Interference Would Backfire
Obama Officials Worried Alarm Over Russian Interference Would Backfire

Obama Officials Worried Alarm Over Russian Interference Would Backfire

Former Obama official Jeh Johnson gave insight on why the administration waited so long to give details.

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The officials didn't say the hacking was as prevalent as Bloomberg suggested when it reported 39 states were targeted by Russia. But the testimony does give a better idea of the scope of the election interference.

It doesn't appear votes themselves were changed, but experts say Russia could be gearing up for a bigger attack on future elections.

The continuing stream of information may have been enough to sway one of the Russian hacking story's biggest and most important skeptics — President Donald Trump.

Trump tweeted Thursday morning: "if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn't they stop them? … It's all a big Dem HOAX!"

But White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Thursday afternoon the president "thinks that it probably was Russia."