If the US "intelligence services" were worried about Russian trolls, a phrase appearing 6 times in the joint report which concluded - without presenting any evidence - that Russia's "undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrated Secretary Clinton, and harmed her electability and potential presidency" and that the "Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump", it may have an entire nation of trolls at its hands now.

The reason: as none other than the NYT admits, "the absence of any concrete evidence in the report of meddling by the Kremlin was met with a storm of mockery on Saturday by Russian politicians and commentators, who took to social media to ridicule the report as a potpourri of baseless conjecture."

Some examples: Alexey Pushkov, a member of the defense and security committee of the Russian Parliament's upper house, ridiculed the American report as comparable to C.I.A. assertions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction: "Mountain gave birth to a mouse: all accusations against Russia are based on 'confidence' and assumptions. US was sure about Hussein possessing WMD in the same way."