Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that the FBI told him that Russia hacked into his vendor's email account in June during his campaign for the Republican presidential primary.
"The campaign vendor that we used was hacked," the three-term South Carolina senator told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. "We were told by the FBI in August that we were hacked in June.
"They pointed us to the fact that the Russians did it," he added. "Yes, the Russians did it."
Reports of Moscow's hacks continued to grip Washington this week after The Washington Post reported that the CIA had privately concluded that not only did the Kremlin seek to undermine the 2016 election but also try to sway the contest in President-elect Donald Trump's favor.
Graham told Blitzer that he thought that some of his emails were released through D.C. Leaks.
"I've never sent an email — and I'm not about to start now," he said.
Graham quit the presidential race last December.
Regarding any reports that Moscow tried to sway the election to Trump, the senator dismissed those — telling Blitzer that Democrat Hillary Clinton "lost because she wasn't an agent of change.
"She tried to disqualify Trump and wasn't able to do it."
The emails released from the Russian breach of the Democratic National Committee's computer system "hurt Clinton and not Trump, but I don't think the outcome of the election is in doubt," he said.
Graham's response to Russia: crippling economic sanctions.
"This is not a Republican-Democratic issue," he told Blitzer. "I want to punish them for interfering in our elections, trying to destabilize the entire world, democratic movements throughout the world.
"And if you don't, the Chinese and the Iranians are going to see this as weakness — and they'll come after us when we take them on."
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