The Trump-Putin Bond That May or May Not Be Real: QuickTake Q&A

During a crazy political year, it’s still one of the crazier questions out there: Did the hard-line leader of America’s Cold War enemy help Donald Trump become president? Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have exchanged compliments and suggested they would like their two countries to work more closely. During the campaign, Democrats warned that Putin was trying to influence the election in Trump’s favor, something Trump explicitly invited before explaining he was just being sarcastic. Now U.S. intelligence agencies are said to be more sure than ever that Russia did meddle, and a Central Intelligence Agency official reportedly told Congress the intent was to help Trump. The president-elect says the allegation is laughable.

We don’t really know. The CIA concluded in a secret assessment that Putin’s government actively sought to help Trump and hurt Clinton, and that people with connections to the Russian government provided WikiLeaks with the hacked e-mails of Democrats including Clinton’s campaign chairman, the Washington Post reported. (The Federal Bureau of Investigation was said to be less certain on the question of Russia’s motives.) The New York Times added that U.S. officials believe Russia broke into the networks of the Republican National Committee too, but didn’t release them. (The RNC denies it was hacked.) Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, denies that the Russian government was his source.