Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators are asking witnesses about whether then-candidate Donald Trump knew that Democratic emails had been hacked before the theft was publicly known, NBC News reported on Wednesday.
Mueller’s team also wants to know whether Trump was involved in releasing them in order to hurt Hillary Clinton and boost his own campaign for the White House, the network said, citing multiple sources.
They have also asked about the relationship between longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — who published the stolen emails — and why some of Trump’s policy positions favored Russia.
Trump has repeatedly said there was no collusion between his campaign or administration and Russia, and has dismissed Mueller’s probe as a “witch hunt” as recently as Tuesday.
The question arose partly because of a statement Trump made himself at a news conference on July 27, 2016 — days after WikiLeaks began publishing Democratic National Committee emails.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said about emails from Clinton’s private server when she was secretary of state.
His then-spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump was “joking.”