President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE on Saturday suggested that he was speaking sarcastically when he said in the run-up to the 2016 election that he hoped Russia found Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonButtigieg stands in as Pence for Harris's debate practice Senate GOP sees early Supreme Court vote as political booster shot Poll: 51 percent of voters want to abolish the electoral college MORE's deleted emails.

Trump's remark at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) prompted a chant of "Lock her up" from attendees at the event in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington.

The president lamented that he couldn't joke without upsetting the media while facetiously reiterating his past comments inviting Russia to find Clinton's deleted emails.

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“I’ve learned, because with the fake news, if you tell a joke, if you’re sarcastic, if you’re having fun with the audience,” he said, “If you say something like ‘Russia, please if you can, get us Hillary Clinton’s emails, please, Russia, please, please get us the emails.”

The crowd cheered enthusiastically and chanted "lock her up."

Trump goads the crowd into booing "the fake news," then suggests he was just being sarcastic when he called for Russian hackers to go after Hillary Clinton's emails during a 2016 news conference.



The crowd responds with "lock her up!" chants pic.twitter.com/kuCu61UgMr — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 2, 2019

Trump was referencing a press conference in July 2016 when he addressed Russia directly, stating, "Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by the press."

Special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE is currently investigating whether Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, including whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow.

Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen testified before Congress on Wednesday and said that Trump's former informal adviser Roger Stone Roger Jason StoneThe agony of justice Our Constitution is under attack by Attorney General William Barr Justice IG investigating Stone sentencing: report MORE had informed Trump in advance of WikiLeak's release of hacked Democratic emails in the summer of 2016.

"Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign," Cohen testified, referring to the founder of WikiLeaks.

“Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of ‘wouldn’t that be great,’” Cohen added.

Both Stone and WikiLeaks denied Cohen's account.

CPAC is an annual gathering of conservative activists that features high-profile speakers. Many conservative university students attend the event.