Donald Trump struggled Thursday to substantiate his allegation that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s private email server was compromised by hackers when pressed by NBC News anchor Lester Holt.
In response to claims made by Mr. Trump a day earlier during an address Manhattan, Mr. Holt asked the GOP presidential hopeful to explain how he learned Mrs. Clinton’s private email server had been hacked.
As the interviewer pressed for answers, though, Mr. Trump wrestled for an explanation that ultimately ended with him promising to deliver proof at a later date.
“But is there any evidence that it was hacked other than — routine phishing —” Mr. Holt asked.
“I think I read that,” Mr. Trump responded. “And I heard it, and —”
“Where?” Mr. Holt said.
“Somebody gave me that information,” Mr. Trump answered. “I will report back to you. I’ll give it to you.
“Probably she was hacked. You can be hacked and not know it,” he relented.
During Wednesday’s address in New York City, however, Mr. Trump seemed much more certain that hackers had successfully breached Mrs. Clinton’s server.
“Her server was easily hacked by foreign governments — perhaps even by her financial backers in Communist China — putting all of America in danger,” Mr. Trump said in a speech that largely targeted his presumptive Democratic opponent. “Then there are the 33,000 emails she deleted. While we may not know what is in those deleted emails, our enemies probably do. So they probably now have a blackmail file over someone who wants to be president of the United States. This fact alone disqualifies her from the presidency.”
But government officials have said there is no evidence suggesting the private email server used by Mrs. Clinton had been the target of a successful cyberattack, NBC reported.
The Democratic front-runner’s use of a nongovernmental email system while secretary of state has been the subject of an FBI investigation since it was revealed in March 2015.
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, has suffered at the hands of hackers more than once since announcing his candidacy in June 2015. A hacktivist group defaced a webpage hosted on Trump.com, and malware reportedly went undetected on systems used at several Trump Hotel Collection properties for nearly a year before being announced in November.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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