Trump says China may have hacked Clinton emails, roiling US presidential campaign
Hackers had made public embarrassing emails sent by Democratic aides to Hillary Clinton
US President Donald Trump said China may have hacked the emails of Democratic officials to meddle with the 2016 presidential election, countering the view of US intelligence officials who have said Russia orchestrated the hacks.
In an interview transcript published on Sunday, Trump gave no evidence backing his allegation – first made on the eve of the November 8 presidential election – that China could have hacked the emails of his rivals.
“If you don’t catch a hacker, okay, in the act, it’s very hard to say who did the hacking,” the president said in an interview with CBS Face the Nation. “[It] could have been China, could have been a lot of different groups.”
The hackers roiled the presidential campaign by making public embarrassing emails sent by Democratic operatives and aides to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. One email showed party leaders favouring Clinton over her rival in the campaign for the party’s internal nomination contest.