Peter W. Smith was convinced emails missing from Clinton's server were in the hands of Russian hackers

A Republican operative who implied he was working with Mike Flynn attempted to obtain emails he believed were stolen from Hillary Clinton's private server, according to a report published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal said Peter W. Smith, who died shortly after speaking with the newspaper, was convinced emails missing from Clinton's server were in the hands of Russian hackers.

The newspaper said it was not clear whether Flynn - a retired lieutenant general and senior adviser to Trump who went on to serve briefly as his national security adviser - played any role in the quest of the operative.

The Journal said Flynn did not respond to requests, the White House declined comment, and the campaign said Smith never worked for it and that any such action undertaken by Flynn, if true, was not on its behalf.

Congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating Russian influence in the election and potential coordination with the Trump campaign.

Russia has been blamed for pilfering emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and of the DNC.

But the newspaper said Smith and the hackers were focused on some 33,000 emails that Clinton said had been deleted and that Smith believed, with no proof, were acquired by hackers.

Officials have said there is no evidence Clinton's private email server was hacked.

Smith told the newspaper that he was unsure of the authenticity of emails hackers eventually did send to him and he told them to pass them to WikiLeaks, the same outfit that published the emails taken from Podesta and the committee.

Mike Flynn was fired after less than a month because of revelations that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with Russia's ambassador to the United States

'We knew the people who had these were probably around the Russian government,' Smith told the newspaper. He died on May 14 at 81, less than two weeks after being interviewed.

In emails Smith sent to potential recruits for his project, and which the newspaper reviewed, he referenced Flynn and Flynn's son, Michael G. Flynn, several times.

The Journal also reported that Russian hackers discussed during the 2016 presidential campaign whether they could obtain emails pilfered from Clinton and ultimately get them to an adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump.

The newspaper said investigators probing Russian meddling in the election have examined intelligence agency reports about how hackers wanted to get emails from Clinton's server to an intermediary and then to Flynn.

Flynn was fired after less than a month because of revelations that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with Russia's ambassador to the United States.