The indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking Democrats’ and Hillary Clinton’s emails said they began going after the former first lady’s personal emails “on or about July 27, 2016” — the same day Donald Trump called on Russia to find her missing emails.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said, looking directly into TV cameras, at a press conference in Florida that day in which he also cast doubt that Russia was behind the hacking.
Clinton’s campaign released an angry statement in response to Trump’s comments at the time.
“This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent,” it said.
“That’s not hyperbole. Those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity and a matter of politics to being a national security issue.”
Trump’s campaign walked back his comments and later said he was only joking.
Russia has denied the hacking, and Trump has said in the past that he believed that Vladimir Putin was telling the truth when the Russian president told him his country was not behind the hacks.
To date, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling has led to the indictment of 25 Russians and three Russian companies.
Five people have pleaded guilty, including former Trump campaign official Mike Flynn, who was fired as national security adviser after he admitted lying about his contacts with Russians on the campaign trail.
The White House on Friday stressed that the 11-count, 29-page indictment said that no Americans knew they were communicating with Russians.
The indictment said the Russians, posing as the phony website they created called Guccifer 2.0, had communicated with an unidentified person who was in regular contact with unnamed Trump campaign officials.