Donald Trump‘s transition team on Friday released a statement dismissing a U.S. intelligence report of foreign interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
“These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” the statement reads. “The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again’.”
In a secret assessment conducted following the U.S. election, the CIA concluded that Russia intervened to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, rather than just undermine confidence in the country’s electoral system, the Washington Post reports.
“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation told U.S. senators, according to the Washington Post.
Trump has not acknowledged the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russian actors were responsible for stealing the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign emails released on WikiLeaks. “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe they interfered,” he told TIME, when interviewed for Person of the Year.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Why Trump’s Message Worked on Latino Men
- What Trump’s Win Could Mean for Housing
- The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024
- Sleep Doctors Share the 1 Tip That’s Changed Their Lives
- Column: Let’s Bring Back Romance
- What It’s Like to Have Long COVID As a Kid
- FX’s Say Nothing Is the Must-Watch Political Thriller of 2024
- Merle Bombardieri Is Helping People Make the Baby Decision
Write to Kate Samuelson at kate.samuelson@time.com