The FBI on Wednesday contradicted President Trump’s claim that Chinese hackers compromised Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s personal email server.
“The FBI has not found any evidence the servers were compromised,” an FBI official said in a statement sent to reporters inquiring about Mr. Trump’s recent claim.
In separate Twitter posts Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump claimed that Chinese hackers had breached Mrs. Clinton’s email server, echoing an unsubstantial reported propagated by conservative media.
“Report just out: “China hacked Hillary Clinton’s private Email Server,’” Mr. Trump tweeted Tuesday.
“Hillary Clinton’s Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China,” he tweeted hours later.
Mr. Trump’s claims came in response to an article originally posted by the right-leaning Daily Caller website on Tuesday and subsequently discussed on Fox News.
According to the article, a Chinese-owned company operating near the nation’s capital purportedly hacked Mrs. Clinton during her stint as secretary of state and obtained most of her emails. The article cited “two sources briefed on the matter” and has not been legitimately corroborated since publication.
Mr. Trump, on his part, tweeted later Wednesday that articles based on unnamed sourced are not to be trusted.
“When you see ’anonymous source,’ stop reading the story, it is fiction!” Mr. Trump tweeted.
Mrs. Clinton used her personal email server for work-related business while secretary of state under former President Barack Obama, and an FBI investigation into the practice ultimately determined her conduct was careless but not criminal.
“We are firmly opposed to all forms of cyberattacks and espionage,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said earlier Wednesday, following Mr. Trump’s hacking claims.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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