2016 United States election interference by Russia

United States intelligence agencies have concluded that there was Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. In January 2017, a published U.S. intelligence community assessment expressed "high confidence" that the Russian government favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton and that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an "influence campaign" to denigrate Clinton and to harm her electoral chances and potential presidency. The report concluded that Russia used disinformation, data thefts, leaks, and social media "trolls" in an effort to give an advantage to Trump over Clinton but did not target or compromise vote tallying. These conclusions were reaffirmed by the lead intelligence officials in the Trump administration in May 2017. Intelligence allies of the U.S. in Europe had found communications between suspected Russian agents and the Trump campaign as early as 2015.

On October 7, 2016, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) jointly stated that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee (DNC) servers and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's personal email account and leaked their documents to . Several cybersecurity firms stated that the cyberattacks were committed by Russian intelligence groups Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear. In October 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama directly warned Putin to stop interfering or face "serious consequences". Russian officials initially issued categorical denials of any Russian involvement in any DNC hacks or leaks. In June 2017, however, in a shift from Russia's previous blanket denials, Putin suggested that private "patriotically minded" Russian hackers could have been responsible for cyberattacks, while continuing to deny government involvement. In January 2017, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified that Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign went beyond hacking, and included disinformation such as the dissemination of fake news often promoted on social media. President-elect Trump initially rejected the reports of Russian interference and criticized the intelligence agencies, saying that Democrats were simply reacting to their election loss.

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