President Trump called any link between his White House and Russia “a total phony story” and denied any involvement in the hacking of the Democratic Party’s computers during the election.
“The concept of Russia with respect to us is a total phony story,” Trump said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Questioned about whether he believes the Kremlin tried to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, Trump said it’s not clear.
“Knowing something about hacking, if you don’t catch a hacker … in the act, it’s very hard to say who did the hacking,” the president said.
“With that being said, I’ll go along with Russia. Could’ve been China, could’ve been a lot of different groups.”
The FBI is investigating Russian interference in the election and any possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and Moscow. Separate probes are also underway in the Senate and the House.
But the Commander-In-Chief said he’s certain about one thing involving the hacking of the Democratic Party’s computers and the emails accounts of
Hillary Clinton campaign officials – it wasn’t Team Trump .
“I can tell you one thing. Had nothing to do with us. Had nothing to do with this, and everyone knows it,” he said.
Trump also said the controversy surrounding Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser , who failed to disclose payments from foreign governments, including from Russia, when he renewed his government security clearance in 2016 is on former President Obama’s administration.
“When he went to Russia, it was 2015 and he was on the Obama clearance. When General Flynn came to us, as you now know, he already had the highest clearance you can have,” Trump said.
The president fired Flynn in February after reports revealed the retired Army general had mislead the White House about his contacts with a Russian ambassador during the campaign.