The Washington Post today published a story, "Obama’s secret struggle to punish Russia for Putin’s election assault," that Obama was warned by the CIA that Putin gave the order to "defeat or at least damage the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and help elect her opponent, Donald Trump."

The timeline of the story as reported by WaPo is summarized by me as follows (quotation marks indicate direct language from Wapo's article):

1. On July 22nd, the DNC Leaks were released by Wikileaks.

2. In late July, DNI chief, James Clapper, at a conference in Aspen, expressed concern about possible Russian meddling on the US election, but stated that the US intelligence community did not have enough evidence to "“make the call on attribution” regarding Russian responsibility for alleged Russian hacking of the DNC, RNC and the subsequent release of the DNC leaks by WikiLeaks.

3. At some point, CIA Director Brennan convened a team of intelligence professionals from the CIA, NSA and FBI who worked solely on determining to what extent Russia was interfering in the US elections. The WaPo story does not indicate if this was done after or prior to the CIA report sent to Obama.

4. In early August, CIA Director John Brennan sent a special eyes only report to President Obama and four senior aides (including National Security Adviser, Susan Rice) that the CIA had received intelligence that Putin directly ordered a Russian cyber campaign to "disrupt and discredit the U.S. presidential race." Eventually the list of administration officials with knowledge of the CIA report expanded to include Vice President Biden and others. Meetings were convened by Rice and/or the homeland-security adviser Lisa Monaco, at which Brennan, Clapper, AG Lynch and FBI Director Comey met to discuss the intelligence gathered that supported Russia's cyber campaign to disrupt the election.

5. Other intelligence agencies did not immediately accept the CIA'a conclusions. The NSA in particular expressed concern based on the fact that the source of critical information supporting the allegations came from a specific country. That country is not named in WaPo's report.

6. Before departing for his vacation to Martha's Vinyard on August 6th, Obama "instructed aides to pursue ways to deter Moscow and proceed along three main paths: Get a high-confidence assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies on Russia’s role and intent; shore up any vulnerabilities in state-run election systems; and seek bipartisan support from congressional leaders for a statement condemning Moscow and urging states to accept federal help."

7. On August 15th, Jeh Johnson, the homeland-security secretary, held a conference call with numerous state officials to float his idea that state voting systems be declared "critical infrastructure" and receive federal cybersecurity protection. He met with resistance from some officials, including Georgia's Secretary of State, Republican Brian Kemp, who voiced suspicion that the intelligence was faulty and that this was an attempt by federal officials to violate states rights.

8. In early September, Johnson, Comey and Monaco met with 12 key members of Congress in September, including senior leadership of both parties to disclose this information to them. The meeting did not go well. Democrats wanted the info released to the public and Republicnas did not, based on the claim that warning "the public that the election was under attack would further Russia’s aim of sapping confidence in the system." Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, also expressed "skepticism that the underlying intelligence truly supported the White House’s claims."

9. In September, and also later in an October 31st phone call, Obama delivered messages to Putin warning him not to interfere in US elections. Putin responded that this claim was untrue and demanded proof. Nonetheless, some Obama administration officials stated that they believe Russia abandoned more extensive cyber measures to "sabotage" the actual voting process after Obama's warnings.

10. "On Sept. 22, two California Democrats — Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam B. Schiff — did what they couldn’t get the White House to do. They issued a statement making clear that they had learned from intelligence briefings that Russia was directing a campaign to undermine the election, but they stopped short of saying to what end." About a week later, " "McConnell and other congressional leaders" issued a statement issued a cautious statement that encouraged state election officials to ensure their networks were “secure from attack.” The release made no mention of Russia and emphasized that the lawmakers “would oppose any effort by the federal government” to encroach on the states’ authorities.

11. Obama was advised to issue very punitive sanctions to punish the Russians and "crater" their economy, but chose not to do anything until after the election, in December when he issued much milder sanctions and ordered the withdrawal of a number of Russian Diplomats from the country.

12. On Jamuary 6, 2017 December the DNI, NSA and CIA released their 25 page declassified assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Nowhere in that report doies it state that Putin was directly responsible for any cyber campaign by Russia to influence the US elections.