Fortune: A Russian hacker confessed in a Russian court to hacking the DNC.

Fortune based its article on reporting by a publication that has been critical of the Putin regime, but hasn't independently verified it.

http://fortune.com/2017/12/11/russian-hacking-election-confession/

A Russian hacker has confessed, in court, to being hired by Russian state intelligence to hack the Democratic National Congress’ computer systems in 2016.

Russian website The Bell, known for a generally critical stance towards President Vladimir Putin and the corruption under his rule, reported Monday that Konstantin Kozlovsky had testified to carrying out attacks at the request of state intelligence organs, notably the FSB (the KGB-successor for which Putin himself had worked in Soviet times).

The testimony is potentially explosive, as it is a first-hand account of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election that directly contradicts Putin’s denials of any involvement. President Donald Trump had indicated after a recent meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam that he believed Putin’s account, rather than the reports of four U.S. intelligence agencies that came to the opposite conclusion.

Kozlovsky had been arrested earlier this year as part of a sweep by Russian authorities into a group of hackers who had stolen over $50 million from Russian bank accounts since the start of 2016 using the so-called Lurk virus. His testimony comes from an Aug. 15 court hearing on whether to extend his pre-trial detention. The website cited Kozlovsky’s own Facebook page for the written transcript, and also an audio recording of the hearing posted on Soundcloud. Fortune hasn’t verified either independently.

Kozlovsky said he reported to Dmitry Dokuchayev, a major-general in the FSB, for various tasks since 2008. In 2016, Dokuchayev had instructed him to attack the DNC’s servers for the purpose of manipulating the U.S. electoral process, Kozlovsky testified.

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