Trump’s selection for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with close friend Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Intelligence officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in a campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.

Putin’s suspected involvement was first reported Wednesday by NBC News.

According to NBC, new intelligence shows Putin directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used.

CBS News, citing its own American intelligence sources, reported Thursday that investigators believe the initial cyberattack involved thousands of malicious emails aimed at the U.S. government, military and political organizations.

According to NBC News, one source said what began as a “vendetta” against Hillary Clinton developed into an effort to show corruption in U.S. politics and to “split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn’t depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore.”

The latest intel goes further than information the United States relied upon in October, when all 17 intelligence agencies signed on to a statement attributing the Democratic National Committee hack to Russia.

“It is most certainly consistent with the Putin that I have watched – and used to work with when I was an ambassador and in the government,” former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul told NBC News.

“He has had a vendetta against Hillary Clinton, that has been known for a long time because of what she said about his elections back in the parliamentary elections of 2011,” he said, noting she had cast doubt on the integrity of Russia’s elections.

“He wants to discredit American democracy and make us weaker in terms of leading the liberal democratic order. And most certainly he likes President-elect Trump’s views on Russia.”

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Vladimir-Putin-hacks-emails-intelligence/2016/12/14/id/764017/