Obama has five weeks left to shape the transition and deter Russian actions. The administration doesn’t rule out the possibility of taking covert action in retaliation, which officials privately said hadn’t been done before the election. The rubric now is simply that the administration will respond at a time and place of its choosing.
Perhaps the trickiest task will fall to Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), Trump’s nominee to head the CIA. He must reassure a battered agency workforce that the next administration values its own intelligence officers and is vigilant against machinations by foreign spies.