‘The Most Successful Covert Operation in History’

Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden called Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election the “most successful covert influence operation in history,” Yahoo News reports.

“Hayden argued that the release of stolen Democratic emails on WikiLeaks was the Kremlin’s egregious act, not the hacks to obtain the information.”

Said Hayden: “If we as NSA could have an insight into … Russia through the same techniques, game on. But now you make the great distinction: What the Russians then did with the information. And then that turned it into what we call a covert influence operation.”