Russian hackers penetrated Republican groups and campaigns, says FBI chief

None of the obtained information leaked, says director

Cyber attacks targeted state-level groups, says FBI director (Getty)

Russian hackers successfully penetrated Republican groups and campaigns, FBI director James Comey has said.

The cyber attacks gained access to state level groups and some "old" Republican National Committee (RNC) domains, he claimed.

Yet Mr Comey told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that none of the obtained information had yet been leaked.

He also said he was not aware of any successful hacks of GOP Presidential campaigns.

Mr Comey told the panel: "There was evidence of hacking directed at state-level organisations, state-level campaigns, and the RNC, but old domains of the RNC, meaning old emails they weren't using."

He added: "None of that was released."

Mr Comey said the hackers had "got far deeper and wider into the [Democratic National Committee] than the RNC," but that "similar techniques" were used to hack both the RNC as the DNC.

The FBI director declined to comment on whether the FBI has investigated any links between associates of President-elect Donald Trump and Russia, saying he could not discuss the matter in a public forum.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the panel on Tuesday the FBI had "high confidence" in its conclusion that Russia launched cyber attacks on the election to "denigrate" Hillary Clinton.

"We have multiple high quality sources that contribute to that assessment," he said.

"Attributing cyber operations is difficult but not impossible."