Intel chair: Not clear Russia tried to help Trump

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) says he’s still unconvinced that a widespread Russian hacking campaign targeting Democratic groups was intended to help elect Donald Trump.

“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,” Nunes told The Washington Examiner in an interview Monday.

Nunes did not rule out the possibility, nor did he deny Russian involvement in the campaign, nicknamed “Grizzly Steppe” by the U.S. government.

{mosads}The Kremlin is capable of that kind of sophisticated campaign, Nunes said.

“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 financial institutions,” Nunes said.

“Specifically, I’ve always said Russia was the most sophisticated actor in this arena.”

Trump has continued to cast doubt on the Intelligence Community’s assessment that Russia was involved in hacking and dumping documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and others.

The president-elect and his team have treated reports of Russian involvement as an attack on the legitimacy of his November victory.

“I just want them to be sure, because it’s a pretty serious charge, and I want them to be sure,” Trump said on New Year’s Eve.

“Hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation.”

Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said over the holiday weekend that there is “zero evidence” of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has promised to reveal what he knows “Tuesday or Wednesday.” But Spicer on Monday tamped down expectations that Trump would reveal new details about the alleged Russian hacking and an adviser to Trump said there was a “possibility” that the president-elect was playing the media with the statement about having privileged information.

The president-elect is scheduled to receive a classified briefing on the situation this week.

Although there is some dispute over whether Russia intended to explicitly help Trump — rather than simply sow uncertainty — few now question that Moscow intended to meddle in some way in the U.S. election.

Forensic evidence published by private firms who investigated the break-in at the DNC is solid and convincing, outside experts say.

And so-called “active measures” — including covert informational warfare tactics — are a common part of Russia’s intelligence playbook.

Members of the Obama administration, most lawmakers on Capitol Hill as well as outside experts have all condemned the Russian campaign.

The White House is expected to provide a complete report of the alleged Russian interference to Congress before Trump takes office on Jan. 20. It is unclear how much of that report will be made public.

Last week, the administration expelled 35 Russian officials and slapped sanctions on intelligence organizations and officials suspected to have carried out the attacks.

It also released a report providing some forensic data linking Russia to the breaches, although it has been widely condemned by the security community as muddled and overly-broad.