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| Trump previously denied that Russia interfered in the election [Reuters] |
Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Donald Trump win the presidential election, a US intelligence report says.
The declassified report says the Russian leader "ordered" a campaign aimed at influencing the election.
The report was released shortly after intelligence chiefs briefed Mr Trump on their findings.
Mr Trump stopped short of accusing Russia of interfering, saying only that the election outcome was not affected.
The report says that the Kremlin developed a "clear preference for President-elect Donald Trump.
"We also assess Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary [Hillary] Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavourably to him," it said.
Since winning the election, Mr Trump has repeatedly questioned US intelligence on the claims of Russian hacking.
US officials previously said the Kremlin was behind the hacking of Democratic Party emails aimed at damaging Mr Trump's rival, Hillary Clinton.
Russian agents are alleged to have sent stolen Democratic emails to WikiLeaks to try to swing the vote for Mr Trump.
Russia has denied any involvement in the hacking and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Moscow was not the source for the site's mass leak of emails from the Democratic Party.
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