Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says the Democratic National Committee might not have actually been hacked by Russian operatives and that the disclosure earlier this week could have been a smokescreen.
“Knowing her — I don’t actually know her, but I sort of understand her — maybe they weren’t hacked. Maybe they just wanted to get it out there,” he said, referring to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who chairs the DNC.
“They have not apologized, and they probably should be apologizing,” Mr. Trump said in an interview that aired Wednesday on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”
The DNC said earlier this week that Russian hackers managed to infiltrate their system, gaining access to opposition research files on Mr. Trump. The Russian government has reportedly denied involvement.
Several websites have published allegedly stolen documents posted online by someone calling themselves “Guccifer 2.0.”
CrowdStrike, the company tasked with investigating the DNC hack, said it was looking into the documents’ authenticity and origin, but that it stands by its analysis identifying “two separate Russian intelligence-affiliated adversaries present in the DNC network in May 2016.”
“Our experts are confident in their assessment that the Russian government hackers were the actors responsible for the breach detected in April, and we believe that [the] release and the claims around it may be a part of a disinformation campaign by the Russians,” a senior DNC official said.
“We’ve deployed the recommended technology so that today our systems are secure thanks to a swift response to that attack, and we will continue to monitor our systems closely,” the DNC official said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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