Politics

Report: Tillerson Will Discuss Hacking During Meeting With Russians [VIDEO]

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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Sec. of State Rex Tillerson plans to bring up Russia’s hacking during the presidential campaign in a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister on Tuesday.

“He is going to raise the Russian hacking,” MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported from Moscow, where Tillerson is set to meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

While both Tillerson and President Trump have acknowledged that the Russian government was behind cyber attacks aimed at Democrats during the campaign, it was unclear whether Tillerson would broach the issue during his visit to Moscow.

Also on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting is Syria’s use of chemical weapons in an April 4 attack of a city controlled by groups opposed to Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s dictator and a Russian ally.

White House officials on Tuesday accused the Russian government of trying to cover up Syria’s involvement in the attack. The possibility that the Kremlin had foreknowledge of the attack is also being investigated.

During her report, Mitchell asserted that Tillerson’s decision to discuss campaign hacking with Lavrov is “dramatically different from anything the president has said.”

She also said that Tillerson “is completely in sync” with the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of Russia’s involvement in the cyber attacks.

Trump acknowledged just before his inauguration that the Russian government was likely behind the cyber attacks. However, he has denied that Russian meddling changed the outcome of the election.

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