I don't have the answers to why the DNC did what it did. I do not trust them any more than you. I am not a Democrat and last year's primary was the first time I ever voted for a Democrat (Bernie Sanders). I know you would probably like to go along with Trump's claim that there may not have been any hack at all, but why leak all the emails relating to debate questions and how to undermine the Sanders Campaign? That seems pretty counterproductive. Anyways, I don't trust people like Clapper, but I trust Trump and his minions even less.
Why would someone leak it?
Because they didn't like it, that seems fairly straight forward.
One does not need to be a state actor to leak materials.
You're presenting a false dilemma, I don't trust Trump either.
Merely our interests align,
currently.
(Example: US/Russian alliance during WW2, they were allied because their interests aligned, at that time.)
"the attribution of the DNC hack to Russia has been extensively vetted by multiple agencies within the US intelligence community as well as the civilian infosec community. Even given healthy skepticism, the overall consensus from both groups is that Russia orchestrated and executed the hacking campaigns."
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/fbi-says-democratic-party-wouldnt-let-agents-see-hacked-email-servers/
The IC is just not trustworthy, period.
They're not law enforcement and given that they can't do a full review of information, without access to the server logs, to rule out inside leaks, shows me someone is up to some bull****.
Not to mention that the Russians could of hacked the DNC, for internal intelligence, while someone else leaked those emails from the inside.
The DNC could easily commingle those separate events into, "Russia hacked the elections."
There have been multiple IT professionals who have reviewed the information, there are many flaws and holes in the explanation.
IP addresses falsely attributed to Russia, missed metadata, etc.
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/14/heres-the-public-evidence-russia-hacked-the-dnc-its-not-enough/
https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/12/russia-malware-ip-hack/
Murray claiming her received the leaks
Former British Ambassador Says He, Not Russia, Is the DNC Leak
These are just a couple of the inconsistencies and odd things about this alleged hack.
Trump has done plenty of saber-rattling towards China with talks of currency-manipulation. However, I do not see him going after China too hard because of the
money he owes to Chinese banks. He won't attack Russia because he admires autocrats like Putin and he has many investments in the country (whether he is being blackmailed by the Kremlin is a matter of speculation but there is some evidence pointing in that direction).
I think that is fairly silly.
Sure Russia could seize his assets, but that would increase tensions with the West, when Russia is in no position to "defeat" the US.
They have to have an objective to beat us.
Given that no one has found any ties, after a few investigations, I find the whole thing just silly conspiracy theory.
Overall, I think these perceptions are very superficial and naive.