Electoral College electors will not receive an intelligence briefing on Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Friday.

However, the US intelligence community didn't think Russian Federation had a "single purpose" by doing so, said the report.

In his message to the CIA's workforce, Brennan said the administration has provided detailed briefings to lawmakers and their aides since the summer. "I will let you make that determination as to whether there are high-level Russian officials who go off rogue and decide to tamper with the USA election process without Vladimir Putin knowing about it".

"In recent days, I have had several conversations with members of Congress, providing an update on the status of the review as well as the considerations that need to be taken into account as we proceed". "Many, but unfortunately not all, members understand and appreciate the importance and the gravity of the issue, and they are very supportive of the process that is underway", Brennan said.

"The committee is vigorously looking into reports of cyber attacks during the election campaign, and in particular we want to clarify press reports that the Central Intelligence Agency has a new assessment that it has not shared with us", Nunes said.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that hacker groups linked to the Russian government have been actively trying to obtain information from the Democratic National Committee of the United States since a year ago.

"I think we handled it the way it should have been handled", he said of the hacking investigation and the lack of a formal accusation of blame until a month before the election. We are well beyond normal political concerns here.

Obama was referring to an October 7 statement by Clapper and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson publicly blaming Russian Federation for hacking political organizations, a clear reference to the Democratic National Committee and other Democratic officials. In addition to helping Trump, intelligence officials have told lawmakers that Moscow's other goal included undermining confidence in the USA electoral system.

President Barack Obama is promising that the US will retaliate against Russian Federation for its suspected meddling in America's election process, an accusation the Kremlin has vehemently denied. "President Obama has every right to carry out the duties that he sees fit based on the information he has through the rest of his term", Sean Spicer, who is the leading contender to be Trump's press secretary, told CNN's Michael Smerconish.

"In early September when I saw President Putin in China I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out, and there were going to be some serious consequences if he didn't", he said.

"The relationship between us and Russian Federation has deteriorated, sadly, significantly over the last several years", Obama said.

Obama said that he personally challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin behind the scenes, but he let law enforcement handle the investigations and the release of information.

"Our analysis is that Comey's letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum", she said in a November 12 conference call, reports The Washington Post.