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The White House Press secretary Josh Earnest indicated on Thursday that he shared the view of US intelligence official that Putin had a direct role in hacking during the presidential election, The Guardian reported.

He also argued that Trump knew Russia was engaged in malicious cyber-attacks that boosted him and damaged his rival, Hillary Clinton.

But asked directly if the White House believes that Russia successfully rigged the US presidential election, Earnest told reporters “there are a variety of potential explanations” for Trump’s surprise win. It was a question for political analysts, he said, not intelligence analysts.

The source details although there is no evidence that Russians hacked voting machines on election day, intelligence officials have claimed Russians were behind the raid on Clinton campaign chairperson John Podesta’s emails, which were published by WikiLeaks and featured regularly in media coverage of the race.

Earnest pointed White House reporters to a unanimous statement from all 17 intelligence agencies, issued in October, that found “only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities”.