US Intelligence community prepares to release declassified report on DNC hack

United States intelligence officials say they have identified the "middle men" who worked with Russia to provide stolen emails to WikiLeaks, according to officials who were present when President Barack Obama was given the classified intelligence report on Thursday.

Just earlier this week, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared on Fox News and denied that Russia was his direct source of the stolen Democratic National Committee emails and emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's email account.

Intelligence officials also say they received new information after the election to solidify their confidence that not only was the Russian government behind the hacked emails, but that their intention was to secure Trump's win. The information includes intercepted communications between Russian officials sharing happiness and congratulatory messages after Trump's presidential victory in November.

Officials stressed that there is no single "smoking gun" evidence to prove Russia's involvement was specifically to ensure a Trump win, but that all of these indicators give them "high confidence" of Russian involvement and intentions, CNN reported.

Thus far, Trump has been quick to dismiss any implication that Russia was behind the leaked emails, even tweeting out as recently as Wednesday, "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!"

Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden told PBS NewsHour that an unclassified version of the intel report will be released soon and he said it will confirm what many already suspect — that Russia was behind the leaked email scandal.

"I think it will probably confirm what a lot of the American people think," he stated. Biden added that it would "state clearly" that the Russians were directly involved with the leaked emails.