Republican nominee simultaneously seeks to distance himself from Vladimir Putin as Clinton campaign accuses Russia of interfering with US election

Donald Trump appeared to incite Russia to hack into and publish Hillary Clinton’s private emails, as her campaign sounded “alarm” at growing evidence of a foreign power “interfering in an American election”.



In the strongest US response yet to an alleged hacking of Democratic party computers, the Clinton campaign confirmed on Wednesday that she had been briefed by US intelligence officials who believe there is now a “weight of opinion” pointing to Moscow as the original source.

“She does not view this as a political issue; she views this as a national security issue,” Clinton’s foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, said. “She believes that it is obviously something new to see them interfering in an American election, but this is part of a pattern of Russia interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries.”

Trump, meanwhile, speaking at a press conference in Florida, raised the stakes again, as he urged Russia to hack into and release Clinton’s emails from the personal server she used while she was secretary of state.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said.



“I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens. That will be next.”

The Republican nominee added: “They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted ... I hope they do ... because you’d see some beauties there.”

Admiral James Stavridis, the former Nato commander who is due to speak at the Democratic national convention on Wednesday night, called Trump’s comments “shocking and dangerous”.

“In addition to the obvious domestic political implications of essentially inviting interference in our election, they will further undermine European confidence in the reliability of the US as an ally – particularly in the face of Russian adventurism,” he said.

Fallout from the emails, published by WikiLeaks, has dominated the first few days of the party’s convention in Philadelphia, allowing Trump to exploit internal divisions and forcing the Democratic National Committee chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to resign. Some commentators are comparing the intrusion to the Watergate break-in.

The Clinton campaign also directly highlighted close ties between Russian interests and the emerging foreign policy agenda of Trump, who many have claimed is a willing beneficiary of the hack.

Clinton campaign criticisms of Trump were underlined by Joe Biden in a television interview during which he claimed the Republican nominee was seeking to undermine Nato in ways that would benefit Russia.



“He’s playing directly into the hands of a guy who says his overarching goal is to break up Nato and to fracture Europe,” the US vice-president told MSNBC.

At the briefing in Philadelphia, Sullivan, Clinton’s adviser, said: “Vladimir Putin, over the past few years has increasingly taken positions that are at odds with the national interests of the United States, ... Unlike Donald Trump, who praises Putin, adopts Putin’s positions, pushes Putin’s positions in his own party platform, Secretary Clinton has made clear that she is going to stand up and have firm, tough, resolute, but ultimately smart positions toward dealing with Russia as we move forward.”

Moscow has rejected the allegations, but WikiLeaks is now attempting to distance itself from the hacking, suggesting the emails may have been provided via an intermediary, after originally dismissing the Russia allegations as a “lame conspiracy smear”.

Trump also dismissed the Clinton campaign’s charge that he was being helped by Russia as a “total deflection”.

“I wish I had that power. I’d love to have that power,” he said on Wednesday at the press briefing in Doral, Florida.

If Russia was behind the DNC hack, he added, it would also have likely been able to penetrate the private email server Clinton used as secretary of state.

In a freewheeling response, he said: “Russia has no respect for our country. If it is Russia – nobody knows. It could be China. It could be somebody sitting in his bed.”

Trump also sought to distance himself from Vladimir Putin, whom he has repeatedly praised in the past. “I never met Putin. I don’t know who Putin is,” Trump said.

Asked if he would handle Putin as a friend or an adversary, Trump said he would treat the Russian president “firmly” but expressed a desire to improve relations.

“There’s nothing I can think of that I’d rather do than have Russia friendly, as opposed to the way we are now, so we can go and knock out Isis together with other people and with other countries. Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along with people?”

Trump also took a new foreign policy position when asked if he would consider recognizing Russia’s illegal occupation of the Crimea. The Republican nominee said: “Yes, I’ll be looking into it.” Since Russia’s invasion and occupation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014, only a handful of countries have recognized the Putin regime’s claim to the area, including Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela.

Russia invaded the Ukrainian territory in 2014 after pro-democracy protests in Maidan Square in Kiev forced then Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych, a longtime employer of Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort, to flee the country. Shortly afterwards, Russian forces launched invasion of the strategically important peninsula where Russia has long maintained naval bases. Thereafter a referendum was held in which 96.7% of voters decided to join Russia. Outside observers described the referendum as “illegitimate and illegal”. In response to the occupation, the US has levied significant sanctions on Russia.



Trump, who has faced questions about whether his business empire has been supported by funding from wealthy Russians, also claimed he could not release his tax returns because they were under audit.

“I’ll release them when the order is completed,” he said, while insisting there was no evidence to support claims of his ties to Russia.

“But zero, I can tell you right now. I have nothing to do with Russia.”

Manafort, Trump’s campaign chair, said when asked directly whether Trump denied having any financial links to Russian oligarchs: “That’s what he said – that’s what I said – that’s … that’s obviously what our position is.”



As news of Trump’s apparent incitement reached the Clinton camp, Sullivan issued a statement denouncing his remarks, adding: “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. 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 demurred on Wednesday when asked if he would release his tax returns before the November election, saying it was “not a big deal” and that he had released 104 pages of documents related to his business dealings.

“I have a great company. I built an unbelievable company,” he said. “But if you look there, you’ll see there’s nothing in Russia.

“I’m not going to tell Putin what to do,” he added. “Why should I tell Putin what to do?”

Trump then proceeded to give at least one instruction to Russia: hacking into Clinton’s emails.

Asked if the Republican speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, supported Trump’s view that Putin should hack and release Clinton’s emails, his chief communications adviser, Brendan Buck, said: “Russia is a global menace led by a devious thug. Putin should stay out of this election.”

Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, issued a statement saying: “The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking. If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.”

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: “President Putin has repeatedly said that Russia has never interfered and does not interfere in internal affairs, especially in the electoral processes of other countries.”

Peskov had earlier dismissed as “absurd” claims that Russia was involved in the hacking of DNC emails that were released by WikiLeaks.

“If you talk about some suspicions regarding our country, then you need at the very least to be precise and concrete,” he added.