Obama Weighed Massive Retaliation for Election Interference

In his final months in office, President Obama set in motion a massive—and secret—retaliatory program against Moscow for interfering in the U.S. election, The Washington Post reported Friday morning, in a detailed article about the former administration’s struggle to prevent Kremlin meddling in the run-up to Election Day. Obama reportedly ordered security services to set up digital bomb “implants” in Russian networks, which could be triggered in a retaliatory cyberstrike in response to Moscow aggression, along with additional sanctions that could cripple the Russian economy. Ultimately, though, he left it up to President Trump to decide whether to use such a weapon. Others from Obama’s administration noted that Oval Office efforts on what to do about Russia failed, despite Obama’s personal warnings to President Vladimir Putin. “It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend,” said one former senior Obama administration official. “I feel like we sort of choked.”