Trump and Julian Assange, an Unlikely Pair, Unite to Sow …

But after hearing Mr. Assanges latest Fox appearance, she wrote on Facebook, Julian, I apologize, and urged her fans to watch the interview.

Despite Mr. Trumps and Mr. Assanges resistance, there are many reasons to accept the idea that Russian intelligence was behind the hacks and leaks that affected the election, even if the public case is not yet airtight, experts say.

Sleuths across the intelligence agencies believe the G.R.U., Russias military intelligence agency, is behind the group blamed for the email hacking, variously known as Fancy Bear and Advanced Persistent Threat 28. Their views are presumably based not just on analyzing the malware and other features of the hacks, but on spy work, including intercepted communications, human agents and software implants in Russian computer systems. Most, though not all, researchers in private industry agree with the conclusion.

The Russian A.P.T. 28 group is blamed not just for taking emails from the D.N.C., the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Mr. Podesta, but also making them public. It was that second step, turning a traditional espionage operation into an attempt to influence the election, that prompted President Obama to expel 35 suspected Russian intelligence agents and to close Russian diplomatic facilities in New York and Maryland.

Theres overwhelming evidence that the Russian government carried out these operations, said Christopher Porter, a manager of analysis at the cybersecurity firm FireEye. He said that while some individual hacks might have been carried out by any number of actors, the overall pattern of attacks attributed to A.P.T. 28 pointed directly at the Russian government.

Some targets for A.P.T. 28 are a niche interest for the Russian government, he said for instance, the World Anti-Doping Agency, which has cracked down on Russian athletes, and certain institutions in Eastern Europe. When the same tools and patterns were used on the American election targets, the connection with Russia seemed indisputable, he said.

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Trump and Julian Assange, an Unlikely Pair, Unite to Sow ...