FBI and NSA Had Low Confidence That Russia Was Behind the DNC Hack

The assessment was scrapped after the agencies dissented, but the Obama administration proceeded to accuse Moscow.

James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Michael Rogers, Director of the National Security Agency, arrive for a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing concerning Russian meddling in the 2016 United States election, on Capitol Hill, March 20, 2017. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The FBI and the National Security Agency, in the heat of the 2016 election, dissented from an intelligence community assessment, which judged that Russia was behind the alleged hack of the Democratic National Committee servers and the subsequent release of stolen emails.

The FBI and NSA instead had “low confidence” in the attribution to Russia, according to a Sept. 12, 2016, Intelligence Community Assessment released to the public for the first time on July 18, 2025, as part of a batch of records declassified by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.