National security adviser John Bolton finds it hard to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin would lack awareness of any Russian military officials hacking into Democratic emails and servers, including servers run by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, before the 2016 election.
“I find it hard to believe, but that’s what one of the purposes of this meeting is, so the president can see eye to eye with President Putin and ask him about it,” Bolton said during an interview with ABC’s “This Week” ahead of President Trump’s bilateral summit with Putin on July 16 in Helsinki, Finland.
But when pressed about how Trump planned to “confront” Putin over the slew of alleged federal crimes committed by the Russian state, Bolton said the format of the meeting would be “basically unstructured” without any “concrete deliverables.”
Bolton, however, said the indictments, brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, strengthened Trump’s hand, adding that if Trump were to call for extraditions it would put him in a “weak position” because the U.S. and Russia do not have a formal extradition arrangement.
[Also read: Russia: Mueller trying to sabotage Trump-Putin summit]
National security adviser John Bolton on the Mueller indictment of Russian agents ahead of Pres. Trump’s meeting with Putin:
“I would say in fact, it strengthens his hand…I think the president can put this on the table and say this is a serious matter” https://t.co/HgvKdxvxVn pic.twitter.com/AQPLpALz4Z
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 15, 2018
Mueller’s indictment, returned Friday in federal court, alleged that 12 Russian officials “engaged in a sustained effort” to break into computers owned by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, and Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
[READ HERE: Mueller’s indictment against 12 Russians for hacking Democrats in 2016]
Bolton pushed back on assertions Trump was undermining federal law enforcement by categorizing Mueller’s Russia investigation as a “witch hunt.”
“I think what he is suggesting is that his political opponents in the United States for well over a year and a half have been trying to say that somehow he’s a dupe of the Russian intelligence services, that he’s an agent of the Kremlin, that he’s been compromised by Russia,” he said.
Bolton also said it was Trump’s decision whether or not to trust Putin.
National security adviser John Bolton on whether he thinks Pres. Trump should trust Russian Pres. Putin:
“I’m the national security adviser, I’m not the national security decision-maker…He’s going to make the decision how to handle this” https://t.co/vAH7qxj8wS #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/3XMpuiX5Ud
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 15, 2018
