"Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!" Trump tweeted, then questioned whether law enforcement had adequately investigated the issue. "So many questions, so much corruption!"

The Senate committee's bipartisan conclusion comes at a potentially awkward time for Trump, who is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 16 in Helsinki, Finland.

The report not only backs up intelligence officials' assessment that Russia acted deliberately to help Trump, but also that Putin personally ordered the efforts to meddle in the US campaign.

Putin last week met with Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton and told him that there had been no interference "by the Russian state," Bolton said in a Fox News interview over the weekend.

The Senate committee, however, said the scope of Russian interference has only become clearer in the years since the campaign.

"Further details have come to light that bolster the assessment," the report said.

The Senate report diverges from an earlier one released this year by House Intelligence Committee Republicans, who said officials were mistaken to conclude that Moscow wanted Trump to win. The House Republicans' report also emphasised the lack of public evidence that Trump's allies conspired with Russians, something that remains under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The new Senate committee report does not address the issue of collusion. It did say, however, that intelligence agencies were on solid ground by saying Moscow developed a "clear preference" for Trump.

Officials relied on "public Russian leadership commentary, Russian state media reports, public examples of where Russian interests would have aligned with candidates' policy statements, and a body of intelligence reporting," the Senate report said.

In addition, the report said there were no signs that the former administration of Barack Obama improperly tried to interfere with intelligence agencies' analysis.

"The Committee heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach any conclusions," the report said.

The report is another example of how the Senate Intelligence Committee has diverged from its House counterpart.

The House Intelligence Committee has been split along partisan lines, releasing Republican and Democratic versions of various reports. Democrats rejected its March report on Russia's activities.

The House panel's chairman, Republican Devin Nunes,  has also proven to be much more willing to jump to Trump's defence, dedicating significant time to examining how the US Justice Department has handled the Russian probe.

Meanwhile, the Senate committee has maintained bipartisan cooperation and expressed little interest in Nunes' theories about allegations of investigator misconduct.

LA Times