Donald Trump has said he may ask Vladimir Putin during their upcoming summit meeting to extradite to the US 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of attempting to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
Speaking in an interview with CBS Evening News conducted on Saturday ahead of his meeting with the Russian leader in Helsinki on Monday, the US president also sought to temper expectations about how much could be achieved.
Asked whether he would press Putin to send to the US members of the Russian military intelligence agency accused of hacking Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign, he said: “Well, I might.
“I hadn’t thought of that. But I certainly, I’ll be asking about it, but again, this was during the Obama administration.
They were doing whatever it was during the Obama administration.”
Trump added his Republican Party had also been the target of Russian hacking efforts but had superior cyber security measures in place.
“I think the Democratic National Committee should be ashamed of them for allowing them to be hacked,” he said.
“They had bad defenses and they were able to be hacked. But I heard they were trying to hack the Republicans too. But — and this may be wrong — but they had much stronger defences.”
Reports in January2017suggested that then-FBI Director James Comey told a Senate panel that “old emails” of the Republican National Committee had been the target of hacking but the material was not publicly released and there was no sign the current RNC or the Trump campaign had been successfully hacked.
The two presidents have shared personal bonhomie in the past, but beyond the alleged hacking of the US election, their countries are deeply divided on a host of other issues including Syria and Ukraine.
Before coming to Europe, Trump predicted his meeting with Putin could be the “easiest” stage of a tour that included stops in Brussels and Britain.
