House Intel chair: ‘No proof’ Russia aided Trump

House Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said he has seen no evidence that Russia was trying to help President-elect Donald Trump win the White House.

“There’s no proof that we have from intelligence sources that I’ve seen that show that the Russians were directly trying to help Trump,” he said in a Washington Examiner interview published Tuesday.

But while Nunes said he hasn’t seen hard proof, he didn’t rule out the possibility that the Russians aided Trump; nor did he claim that Moscow is innocent in pre-election hacking.

{mosads}“We have been screaming here in the House of Representatives for many years that the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, North Koreans and other bad actors, every day, were attacking every imaginable place that you could think of, whether it be political parties, to the United States Congress, to the Department of Defense, to our intelligence agencies, to our financial institutions,” he said.

“Specifically, I’ve always said Russia was the most sophisticated actor in this arena,” Nunes added. “This is something that [Democratic presidential nominee] Hillary Clinton knew damn well when she got her private server, that the Russians could have the capability to get in there.”

“I know, every day, that the Russians likely have the capability to try to listen to my phone calls or read my emails and I just have to make the assumption that they do – or the Chinese or other bad actors.”

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a joint report last week detailing how federal investigators linked the Russian government to hacks targeting the Democratic Party.

The Obama administration last week also announced new sanctions against Russian intelligence agencies and officials as retaliation for its alleged election meddling. The White House additionally expelled 35 Russian officials and shuttered two compounds believed to be used by Russian intelligence.

Trump has vehemently denied Russia helped him win the White House, and incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday said “zero evidence” exists proving Moscow’s interference. Russia has vehemently denied U.S. intelligence officials’ findings.