Since Bob would apparently prefer not fouling up his thread with discussion of the validity of the claim itself:
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/14/heres-the-public-evidence-russia-hacked-the-dnc-its-not-enough/
First up, the disclaimer:
Again, it’s completely possible (and probable, really) that the CIA possesses hard evidence that could establish Russian attribution — it’s their job to have such evidence, and often to keep it secret.
This is my position on it, as well. There are many aspects of the current theory that 'pass the smell test' as it were. There are also, however, some claims that contradict other claims, such as:
Compare that description to CrowdStrike’s claim it was able to finger APT 28 and 29, described above as digital spies par excellence, because they were so incredibly sloppy. Would a group whose “tradecraft is superb” with “operational security second to none” really leave behind the name of a Soviet spy chief imprinted on a document it sent to American journalists? Would these groups really be dumb enough to leave cyrillic comments on these documents? Would these groups that “constantly [go] back into the environment to change out their implants, modify persistent methods, move to new Command & Control channels” get caught because they precisely didn’t make sure not to use IP addresses they’d been associated before? It’s very hard to buy the argument that the Democrats were hacked by one of the most sophisticated, diabolical foreign intelligence services in history, and that we know this because they screwed up over and over again.
(Emphasis added)
That has perhaps been my one issue with this as it has grown. The 'orgy of evidence' (to use a term from one of the best horrible movies ever :9) starts to work against itself as a credible implication. Among them being the 'business hours in Russian time zones' bit. When I think hackers, I don't think of people working 9 to 5 shifts (which they may very well do, but not in the sense of being directly related to their nefarious activities). Even state-sponsored electronic espionage being structured around 'office hours' seems a little weird.
Naturally some of this goes off in the other direction of tin-foil-hattery, so I take it with a grain of salt.
What I do consider a rational exercise, however, is considering the open question: what
other plausible explanations remain in the face of the most direct, irrefutable evidence?
Which is incredibly tough to consider since there is an abundance of circumstantial evidence and a lot of plausible theorizing that some sources have presented as concrete fact.