U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and most fellow Republicans in Congress have concluded that while Russia may have hacked the November election, it had no influence on the outcome.
But Democrats who have seen all the evidence collected by U.S. intelligence agencies on Russia's extensive efforts to influence the election last year on orders from President Vladimir Putin beg to differ.
"The president-elect's statement that the Russian hacking had 'absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election' is not supported by the briefing, report, or common sense," said Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
"It is one thing to say that there was no tampering with vote tallying, which is true. It is another thing to say that the daily dumping of documents disparaging to [Democratic presidential candidate Hillary] Clinton that was made possible by Russian cyberoperations had no effect on the campaigns," he said.
"The consequence of these disclosures was hugely beneficial to the president-elect and damaging to the Clinton campaign, just as the Russians intended," Schiff said.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Russia's "political thuggery" hurt Clinton's campaign and amounted to an "assault on American democracy."