Republicans Ryan and McConnell back Russia vote hack probe

Senator McConnell (R) appears to be at odds with President-elect Trump over the intelligence report

Senior Republicans in Congress have said they will support further investigation of findings that Russian hackers meddled in the US election.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said any foreign intervention in the polls was unacceptable.

Russian wooden dolls displayed in a Moscow shop

President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly poured scorn on the claims, made by US intelligence.
The CIA concluded on Friday that Russia's motive was to help Mr Trump.

Mr McConnell and Mr Ryan said their respective intelligence committees would investigate the allegations.


"Any foreign breach of our cyber-security measures is disturbing and I strongly condemn any such efforts," Senator McConnell told reporters, adding that "the Russians are not our friends".

Mr Ryan echoed these remarks, but warned against exploiting the work of the intelligence community for "partisan purposes".

"As we work to protect our democracy from foreign influence, we should not cast doubt on the clear and decisive outcome of this election," he said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The remarks came amid suggestions by Mr Trump that the claims were politically motivated.

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On Sunday he told Fox News the Democrats were disseminating the "ridiculous" hacking reports because they lost the election.

Then on Monday he tweeted: "Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!

"Unless you catch 'hackers' in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn't this brought up before election?"