Trump and his team are reacting to the CIA's assessment in precisely the wrong way. If Russian hacking operations did in fact occur, and if they did so at the behest of Russian intelligence, then the more Trump doubles down on claiming the contrary, the more reliant he becomes on Russian President Vladimir Putin keeping secret the Russian operations. Putin will eventually want to be paid for his silence. For example, he may want Trump to show flexibility regarding economic sanctions against Russia as a result of Putin's 2014 invasion of Crimea. In other words, if Trump doesn't change course, once he takes the oath of office, our next president may be vulnerable to blackmail by a powerful and determined foe of the United States.