re: Why is so terrifying and horrible that people Trump knows talked to Russia?

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The report contains some of what the officials called "minor footnotes" about open questions and other uncertainties, in part because some of the evidence supporting the conclusion is inferential.

One such example, the officials said, was that intercepted messages and conversations among senior Russian officials in Putin's inner circle indicated they were aware of the hacking campaign and celebrated Trump's election as a victorious end to the campaign.

The officials declined to discuss the nature of the communications, including whether they were domestic, international, or both.

"People who knew what this was about were celebrating a victory over the United States," said one official.

Another example of inferential evidence, the officials said, was that as time passed and the early leaks attracted media attention that undermined or eclipsed Clinton's campaign, the Russians increasingly focused their hacking "almost exclusively" on Democratic rather than Republican targets.

There was also strong resemblance -- including the use of the same computer malware -- the Russians have used against targets in Europe and the marriage of traditional espionage tactics used by Soviet and Russian intelligence such as bribery, blackmail and internet vulnerabilities, which they said Putin has devoted increasing resources and attention to exploiting.

For example, one official said, the Democratic databases and email servers the Russians hacked also contained personal information that Wikileaks has not published.

Such information could be used to search for financial, medical, browsing history and other records that can be used to target individuals for recruiting efforts by Russian spies.

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was that intercepted messages and conversations among senior Russian officials in Putin's inner circle

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