President Donald Trump made repeated requests to individuals associated with his presidential campaign to find the 30,000 emails deleted from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server, according to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
The requests came after then-candidate Trump stated at a July 2016 press conference that he hoped Russia was “able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
Trump “made this request repeatedly” to Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser told the special counsel. Flynn said he contacted multiple people in his effort to obtain Clinton’s deleted emails, including long-time Senate staffer Barbara Ledeen and investment advisor Peter Smith.
Flynn and other individuals affiliated with the Trump campaign were ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining Clinton’s deleted emails, Mueller wrote.
Also within five hours of Trump’s July 2016 press conference, officers of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, targeted Clinton’s personal office for the first time, according to the special counsel’s report. A unit of the GRU “created and sent malicious links containing 15 email accounts at the domain … including an email account belonging to” a Clinton aide whose name was redacted, the report said.
Trump was heavily criticized for saying he hoped Russia could find Clinton’s missing emails.
“This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent,” Clinton advisor Jake Sullivan said. “This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.”
Mueller’s report found that neither Trump nor any members of his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
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