Obama Authorized NSA Cyber Strikes Against Russia In Response To Putin's Pro-Trump Campaign

President Barack Obama learned last August that Russian President Vladimir Putin was directly involved in a cyber campaign against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to an extensive report by the Washington Post.

The CIA reportedly told Obama the Russian operation’s purpose was to disrupt and discredit the 2016 presidential election. Putin himself specifically directed the cyber campaign to defeat or at least damag Clinton in order to elect then-candidate Donald Trump.

Obama “was deeply concerned and wanted as much information as fast as possible,” a former official told the Post. “He wanted the entire intelligence community all over this.”

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While the Kremlin led their cyber campaign on the election, Trump praised Putin saying he was a better leader than Obama. Trump also told Russians in July to continue hacking Clinton and “find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”

The Obama administration then held secret meetings to debate options for dissuading or punishing Russia. Those options included cyberattacks on Russian infrastructure, release of CIA intelligence that could embarrass Putin and sanctions that would hurt Russia’s economy. Obama approved other measures in December, including the ejection of 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S. and closing two Russian compounds. As of now, the sanctions Obama placed on Russia remain.

At the end of his presidency, Obama approved a covert measure that would deploy cyber implants in Russian infrastructure, the Post revealed. The cyber weapons would be the digital equivalent of bombs that could be triggered if the tensions between the U.S. and Russia escalated in the future.

The implants were created by the NSA and could be triggered remotely in case of Russian aggression, an attack on a power grid or infiltration in future presidential races. There was a concern among some some in the Obama administration that the damage caused by the cyber weapons could be difficult to contain, according to the Post.

The measure was still in its planning stages when Obama left the White House. Now, the project is in the hands of Trump.

Read: US Election Hacked? Voter Rolls Altered, Data Stolen By Russian Hackers, Report Says

Trump has denied any involvement with Russians, even though there have been more revelations of connections between his aides and Russia, including national security adviser and former Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is also under investigation. The president’s firing of former FBI director James Comey also spurred talks about Trump’s links to Russia. Trump fired Comey as he lead an investigation into whether Trump advisors had contact with the Kremlin to sway the 2016 election.

The report also revealed some Obama administration officials look back at the handling of Russia with remorse.

“It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend,” a former senior Obama administration official involved with the matter told the Post. “I feel like we sort of choked.”