Obama Orders ‘Full Review’ Into Claims of Russia Election Hack

Acquiescing to growing calls from Congressional Democrats, President Obama today announced that he has ordered a “full review” into the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The White House vowed that nothing discovered would change the outcome of the election.

And indeed, the American public is unlikely to ever know exactly what the review comes up with in the way of evidence, if anything, as one of Obama’s advisers noted Obama would likely keep such details secret, and President-elect Donald Trump is likewise unlikely to release anything about the probe.

Hillary Clinton campaigned through much of the election on the narrative that Russia was trying to “hack the election” to install Trump as their “puppet.” Clinton falsely claimed this had been confirmed by 17 different US spy agencies, and her Congressional supporters have claimed the FBI is holding on to damning evidence against Russia.

While Obama appeared to give credence to Clinton’s allegations, saying during the campaign that it was plausible Russia might do that sort of thing, indications are that the FBI hasn’t come up with any proof released publicly, and the White House has insisted they are certain that no foreign actors altered the results of the vote.

The claims of him being Putin’s puppet have been such a centerpiece of Democratic narratives against Trump, however, that the allegations won’t die for lack of evidence, and the probe is unlikely to do anything but continue that trend, since no matter what the probe actually comes up with, the secrecy surrounding it will be used to infer that something untoward happened.