Russia meddled in election

Six top US intelligence officials told Congress Thursday they agree with the conclusion that Russia acted to influence last year's election, countering President Donald Trump's assertions that the hacking remains an open question.

Asked whether they believed the intelligence community's January assessment that Russia was responsible for hacking and leaking information to influence the elections was accurate, all six spy and law enforcement bosses appearing before the panel said "yes."

They included Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, CIA director Mike Pompeo and acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, newly installed after Trump fired the agency's chief James Comey this week.

The acting chief of the FBI told the US Congress that Trump's shock firing of James Comey will not derail the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

The assessment comes amid a mushrooming crisis for the Trump team as questions swirl over why the president fired his FBI director, who was overseeing an investigation into Russian election meddling and possible connections between Trump campaign associates and Russia last year.

Trump has repeatedly denounced as "fake news" the accusations that members of his circle coordinated or colluded with Russian officials.

Asked again late last month in a CBS News interview whether he believes Russia tried to interfere in the election, Trump said "I don't know... Could've been China, could've been a lot of different groups."

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's administration was left red-faced Thursday after the Moscow surprised it by releasing pictures of a closed-door meeting between the US president and Russia's top diplomat.

The images -- issued by the Russian state news agency TASS, and subsequently published by much of the global media -- showed a grinning Trump shaking hands with Sergei Lavrov and the Russian ambassador in Washington, Sergei Kislyak, during an Oval Office meeting.

That Wednesday meeting was already being seen as a major diplomatic coup for the Kremlin, a red carpet welcome just months after being hit with US sanctions for meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Veteran diplomats questioned why Trump agreed to host the diplomats -- a rare honor for non-heads of state, much less for those at the center of major US political scandal.

US administrations often treat Oval Office meetings as a type of currency, dangling the prospect of a high-profile sit-down to gain leverage or concessions in negotiations.

But the emergence of photos compounded the perception that Russia had won a diplomatic victory and that the Trump White House was outmaneuvered.