President Barack Obama plans to respond to Russia “proportionally” for the recent political email breaches affecting the Democratic National Committee, White House Press Sec. Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday.
“We obviously will ensure that our response is proportional,” Earnest said. “It is unlikely that our response would be announced in advance.”
“The president has talked before about the significant capabilities that the US government has to both defend our systems in the United States but also carry out offensive operations in other countries,” he added.
The Hillary Clinton campaign is also pointing at the finger at the Russians as the main culprit behind the Wikileaks email dump that revealed communications among her staff and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Earnest refused to speak directly about the Podesta email situation saying, “I’m not going to comment directly on the stolen emails of private citizen.”
However, he refuted reports based on the Wikileaks emails that the Justice Department colluded with the Clinton campaign during the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s mishandling of classified material on her private email server.
“Both the attorney general and the FBI director have made clear that the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s private email server was conducted without regard to partisan politics.”
FBI Director James Comey, Earnest added, has indicated there was “not even an attempt by the White House to influence that investigation.”
