Donald Trump on
Wednesday appeared to suggest that Russian operatives should hack
into the email account of Hillary Clinton, to help retrieve her
30,000 deleted emails. Speaking in Doral, Florida, Trump said:
‘Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the
30,000 emails that are missing’. In the same press conference, the
Republican nominee also denied allegations that Russia had helped to
hack into the Democratic National Committee emails in order to help
his campaign
Trump's
comments on Russia denounced as 'shocking and dangerous'
Former
Nato commander says Republican’s comments urging Russia to hack
Hillary Clinton’s emails were alarming for domestic and
international concerns
Spencer Ackerman
and Sam Thielman in New York
Wednesday 27 July
2016 21.25 BST
A former Nato
commander has said Donald Trump’s call for Russia to hack and
disclose rival Hillary
Clinton’s emails
were “shocking and dangerous”.
Retired US admiral
James Stavridis said Trump’s comments on Wednesday were alarming
both for domestic political concerns and their international
implications.
“In addition to
the obvious domestic political implications of essentially inviting
interference in our election, they will further undermine European
confidence in the reliability of the US as an ally – particularly
in the face of Russian adventurism,” said Stavridis, whom Clinton
briefly vetted for vice-president.
Amid widespread
political speculation about Trump’s unusual respect for Russian
president Vladimir Putin – the rare foreign figure Trump has not
belittled – Trump said at a Wednesday press conference: “Russia,
if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails
that are missing.”
Other former senior
defense officials echoed Stavridis, even as they said they did not
wish to wade into a presidential election. Another former senior
defense official, who did not want his name used, texted
“unbelievable” when asked about Trump.
Trump’s comments,
encouraging espionage from a foreign power on his domestic political
adversary, came as the FBI has opened an investigation into the
release of 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC)
through WikiLeaks.
Cybersecurity firms
believe the emails were acquired over several months of quiet access
to the network in 2015 by two Russian hacking teams. The hackers,
designated Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear by investigators, are very likely
the work of Russian intelligence apparatus, according to CrowdStrike,
which analyzed the hack.
As the political
fracas around the DNC hack intensified on Wednesday, the ranking
Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees made an
extraordinary request to Barack Obama: to consider “declassifying
and releasing” intelligence assessments of the data breach, even
though the FBI’s inquiry has just begun.
Senator Dianne
Feinstein and Representative Adam Schiff, both California Democrats,
pledged their support for the FBI investigation, but said given the
prospect that Russia might have engaged in “a state-sponsored
attempt to manipulate our presidential election, we believe a
heightened measure of transparency is warranted”.
The legislators
named Putin, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Russian military
intelligence (GRU) specifically in their request and asked for a
public airing of assessments that “might illuminate potential
Russian motivations” for the interference.
As the FBI
investigation unfolds, there is preliminary consensus within the
Obama administration that the DNC breach was Russian in origin, but
not that it was directed or controlled by the Russian government. One
senior official, asked about a potential declassification, remarked:
“Maybe figure out what’s going on first.”
The breach of the
DNC by a pair of intruders believed to be Russian operatives has sent
shockwaves through the Democratic party and resulted in the ouster of
committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who announced her
resignation on Sunday.
Trump’s comments
on Wednesday, combined with his refusal to release his tax returns,
have likely ensured that questions about his unusual openness toward
Putin will remain a fixture of the 2016 presidential contest,
particularly as Trump has cast doubt on the US honoring its Nato
commitments to protect its Baltic allies from Russian aggression. At
his Wednesday press conference, Trump also said he would “be
looking into” recognizing Russia’s conquest of Crimea from
Ukraine in 2014 and lifting sanctions against Moscow aimed at
pressuring a Russian withdrawal.
Senator Ron Wyden,
an Oregon Democrat on the intelligence committee, said that Trump’s
behavior “wouldn’t be believable if he was a character on House
of Cards”, much less the Republican nominee for president.
“Trump goes out of
his way to praise Vladimir Putin, he advocates pro-Russian foreign
policy positions – like breaking commitments to America’s
European allies – and now he’s hoping Russia hacked the secretary
of state’s emails? Anyone who cares about US national security
should be truly alarmed about the possibility that this man could be
our president,” Wyden said.
Despite its
confidence that the hackers were Russian spies, CrowdStrike was
cautious in attributing the hack to the specific Russian agencies
cited in Feinstein and Schiff’s letter. Dmitri Alpertovitch, head
of the firm, has said he has “low-level confidence” that Cozy
Bear was the work of the FSB and “medium-level confidence” that
Fancy Bear represented Russia’s GRU.
The ranking
Democrats called the evidence connecting the hackers and the Russian
intelligence agencies “convincing”, a step the Obama
administration, the FBI and the intelligence agencies have yet to
take publicly.
The White House and
the office of the director of national intelligence did not have
immediate comment on Feinstein and Schiff’s declassification
request. The FBI referred the Guardian to the White House.
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