The paper specifies that the results are legitimate despite alleged Russian attempts to undermine the presidential race and its results.
During the race, a number of US officials and politicians had repeatedly accused Russia of being behind the leak breaches of Democratic National Committee computers, emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, and several state systems. Russia has denied all such allegations and said it didn’t want to interfere in or attempt to influence US elections.
"The Kremlin probably expected that publicity surrounding the disclosures that followed the Russian government-directed compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from US political organizations, would raise questions about the integrity of the election process that could have undermined the legitimacy of the president-elect," the Obama administration was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
On November 8, Trump managed to come ahead of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the US presidential elections. Following the vote, Trump's opponents called for recount of votes in several states, where he had won by slight majority of votes.
To become president, a candidate must win at least 270 electoral votes, a threshold Trump exceeded by at least 20, with a few states’ tabulations still to be finalized. Clinton received at least 232 electoral votes but won the popular vote that had already caused massive protests in different states across the country.
The 2016 US presidential election has already become famous for the scandals surrounding the candidates, such as Clinton’s use of a private email server for official use during her tenure as secretary of state, or Trump’s crude comments about women.