Putin: Election Hacking

Apparently, the operation was carried out with sophisticated hacking tools, the equivalent of those used by the US National Security Agency. The use of the advanced tools suggests Russian President Vladimir Putin was involved in the hacks. There was a prolonged effort to steal emails and data from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. That information could then have been used to purposely meddle with the election, specifically because Russia sees a Trump administration as helpful to them. President Barack Obama on Thursday vowed to take action against Russia. He said, "I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing.” He said he directly confronted Putin about a potential US response. "Mr. Putin is well aware of my feelings about this, because I spoke to him directly about it," Obama said. Officials have said US actions against Russia may not be revealed publicly. The US intelligence assessment continues to be based on the analysis of intelligence, not any evidence directly linking Putin to the effort. Russian cyber hacking activity has continued since the election, including against US political organizations.

In Other News Dylann Roof, the man found guilty of killing nine people at a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, last year was convicted by a jury on Thursday. Next month, the jury will decide whether to sentence Roof to the death penalty. If jurors decide on the death penalty, Roof will join a list of infamous killers, such as Timothy J. McVeigh, convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing. McVeigh, who died by lethal injection in 2001, was one of the few federal inmates who have been executed in the United States since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 after a 16-year moratorium. The last person given a federal death sentence was bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in 2015 after he was convicted for his role in killing four people and wounding others in the 2013 Boston Marathon. Roof's attorneys had challenged the federal death penalty. They argued that the Federal Death Penalty Act was "unconstitutional punishment" and that such "cruel and unusual punishment" violated both the Fifth and Eighth Amendments. The self-declared white supremacist has admitted to the killings.

Friday Photos