U.S. President Donald Trump claimed China – not Russia – hacked the emails of 2016 Presidential candidate and rival Hillary Clinton with a tweet early on Wednesday.
Trump said in a tweet a little after midnight on Wednesday:
“Hillary Clinton’s Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China. Next move better be by the FBI & DOJ or, after all of their other missteps (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, FISA, Dirty Dossier etc.), their credibility will be forever gone!”
The accusation comes after U.S. intelligence officials have frequently pointed the finger at state-sponsored hackers from Russia for hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.
In July, a U.S. federal grand jury directly implicated 12 Russian intelligence officers on charges of targeting and hacking the Democratic National Committee’s computer networks, with an indictment. It was the first ever instance of charges filed against Russian government officials for interfering in American politics, part of the 29-page indictment that claimed hackers used a malware, dubbed X-agent, to infiltrate the DNC’s network.
Kremlin has vehemently denied the accusations of Russia meddling in the elections while Trump has denied collusion.
“China hacked Hillary Clinton’s private Email Server. Are they sure it wasn’t Russia (just kidding!)? What are the odds that the FBI and DOJ are right on top of this? Actually, a very big story. Much classified information!”, Trump said in a tweet earlier on Tuesday.
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