A view of the Kremlin in Moscow during a snowfall on Dec. 8. (Maxim Shipenkov/European Pressphoto Agency)

WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — FBI Director James B. Comey and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. concurred with a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in part to help Donald Trump win the White House, officials said Friday, as President Obama issued a public warning to Moscow that it could face retaliation.

Moscow has denied being behind the cyber-intrusions, which targeted the Democratic National Committee and the private emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. Trump, in turn, has repeatedly said he doubts the veracity of U.S. intelligence blaming Moscow for the hacks.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Trump said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” his first Sunday news-show appearance since the Nov. 8 election. “I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it. . . . No, I don’t believe it at all.”

At a “thank you” event for some of her campaign supporters last week, Hillary Clinton said she believed Russian-backed hackers went after her campaign because of a personal grudge that Putin had against her. Putin had previously blamed Clinton for creating mass protests in Russia after the controversial parliamentary elections in 2011 that challenged his rule. Putin said Clinton, then secretary of state, had “sent a signal” to protesters by labeling the elections “neither free nor fair.”

The stances of Comey and Clapper were circulated amongst CIA employees in a message from Director John Brennan on Friday.

“Earlier this week, I met separately with FBI [Director] James Comey and DNI Jim Clapper, and there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election,” Brennan said, according to U.S. officials who have seen the message.

In the closed-door Senate briefing, CIA officials said it was now “quite clear” that electing Trump was one of Russia’s goals, according to The Washington Post, citing an anonymous intelligence official source. American intelligence officials do not think Russia had a “single purpose” by intervening in the presidential campaigns, the report added.

In addition to the goal of helping elect Trump, Putin aimed to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, intelligence officials have told lawmakers.

Brennan wrote to the CIA workforce, officials said, to reassure them in the face of accusations from Trump supporters that intelligence was being politicized.

In one of the last news conferences of his presidency, Obama defended his administration’s response to the Russian hacking and vowed to “send a clear message to Russia” that its meddling was unacceptable.

“I think we handled it the way it should have been handled,” Obama said of the hacking investigation. “We allowed law enforcement and the intelligence community to do its job without political influence.”

At Friday’s news conference, Obama did not directly point the finger at the Russian president. But he came close to doing so by saying: “Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin.”