Trump: ‘Everyone’ at G-20 summit is talking about 2016 DNC email leaks

Gabby Kaufman
·Reporter


President Trump went on a Twitter burst Friday from Hamburg, Germany, where he is attending the G-20 summit.

Among other things, Trump asserted that a hot topic among the world’s most powerful figures was the “disgraceful” response of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager to the phishing attack that led to thousands of campaign emails being leaked last year. Trump also appeared to conflate that attack with a separate hack that targeted the Democratic National Committee.

“Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA,” Trump tweeted. “Disgraceful!”

While the attacks targeting Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and the DNC were somewhat similar, they were separate events, and Podesta was not in charge of nor did he work for the DNC. The U.S. intelligence community accused the Russian government at its highest levels of spearheading the hacks, which led to WikiLeaks publishing thousands of leaked emails.

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It seems unlikely that Podesta would be a big topic of discussion at the G-20 summit, which brings together the leaders of 20 leading world economic powers.

Adrienne Watson, a DNC spokeswoman, responded to Trump on Twitter. She wrote: “1) Podesta never ran the DNC. 2) DNC worked with FBI to kick out Russians. Worked with DHS. 3) Putin make you tweet this before mtg?”

Watson didn’t have any immediate further comments on Trump’s tweets, but noted that the committee has commented “extensively” in the past.

“The DNC has and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement on Russia’s interference in our election. The DNC has been in regular contact with the FBI for many months and the FBI confirmed the DNC has provided all the information it needed to make its assessment,” the DNC said in one past statement.

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Donald Trump, John Podesta, (Yahoo News photo Illustration; photos: Michael Sohn/AP, AP)
Donald Trump, John Podesta, (Yahoo News photo Illustration; photos: Michael Sohn/AP, AP)

Trump’s tweet came hours before he was scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House has not definitively said whether Trump will confront Putin about his alleged meddling in the U.S. election.

For the president, the missive marked a return to familiar territory from the campaign: attacking Clinton. In the 10 months since the election, Trump has continued to rain Twitter fire on his former opponent, often when news bubbles up about the FBI and Congress’ investigations into whether his campaign associates colluded with Russia during the race.

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