Trump maintains he doesn't know if Russia behind hacks

Donald Trump remains unconvinced that Russia is behind a series of cyberattacks against American political targets, he said in an interview that aired Thursday morning, and said the U.S. government’s public assignation of guilt to the Kremlin amounted to “public relations.”

"All 17 U.S. Intelligence agencies believe the Russians are behind that leak,” Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Trump in a one-on-one interview taped Wednesday at the GOP Nominee’s Washington hotel. “Why don't you believe it?”


“I don't know if they're behind it and I think it's public relations, frankly,” Trump said. “Do you know what bothers me? I have nothing to do with Russia.”

The Manhattan billionaire has been accused throughout the campaign of being unnecessarily warm towards Russia, which has in turn been accused by the U.S. government of attempting to interfere with the American election process to Trump’s benefit. Hacking attacks that U.S. intelligence agencies have blamed on Russia have targeted the Democratic National Committee, prompting the resignation of former Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and other left-leaning targets.

Most recently, the personal email account of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was hacked and his messages published by WikiLeaks, creating further controversy and headache for a White House bid already weighed down by another email scandal.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that particular attack could not be specifically attributed to Russia because Podesta’s emails were not part of the government’s investigation into cyberattacks launched by the Kremlin. But Earnest added that WikiLeaks’ daily releases of Podesta’s emails bears a striking resemblance to other attacks that have been officially blamed on Russia.

Still, Trump told Stephanopoulos that despite the assurances of House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), he’s not certain that Russia is behind the hacking attempts.

“Hacking is very untrusting. Hacking is very hard to determine who did what, okay? You know that,” the real estate mogul said. “People are hacking all over the place and nobody knows. They don't know if it's Russia. They can't guarantee it's Russia, and it may be.”