In His Own Words: Trump on Russian Meddling
In a tweet about Russia’s interference in the 2016 president campaign, President Donald Trump falsely claimed that he “never said Russia did not meddle in the election.”
Before and after the Nov. 8, 2016, election, Trump has expressed the opinion that Russia did not hack the Democratic National Committee’s computers. “I don’t believe they interfered,” Trump told Time magazine during a Nov. 28, 2016, interview. In a Jan. 3, 2017 tweet, Trump dismissively referred to the cyber attack on the DNC as the “so-called ‘Russian hacking’.”
When he did acknowledge that Russia may have hacked into the DNC computers, Trump cast doubt on how the U.S. could ever know for sure who was responsible for the hacking. Claiming he knows “something about hacking,” Trump told CBS News on April 29, 2017, that “if you don’t catch a hacker, okay, in the act, it’s very hard to say who did the hacking.”
Trump made his revisionist remarks about his past comments on Russia in one of a series of tweets over two days, beginning on the evening of Feb. 17. That was the day after the special counsel’s office issued an indictment charging 13 Russian nationals and three Russian organizations with illegally interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
The indictment alleged the defendants used the names of U.S. citizens and companies to illegally fund political advertising and political rallies. These illegal campaign activities were part of a larger
