Russian President Vladimir Putin laughed Monday as Fox News reporter Chris Wallace asked him about meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, denying responsibility while defending the hacks he’s accused of orchestrating.
Putin chuckled as Wallace read from a printed copy of a criminal indictment filed Friday against 12 Russian officials, accusing them of hacking Democratic emails in an effort to help President Trump win.
“Russia as a state has never interfered with the internal affairs of the United States, let alone its elections,” Putin insisted in Russian.
Earlier in the day, Trump shocked domestic critics by saying he was unconvinced of Russian government culpability, citing Putin’s “extremely strong and powerful” denial during a two-hour meeting.
The recent indictment against Russian officials alleged that two units of Russia’s military intelligence service were involved in hacking Democratic emails, and Wallace cited the particular units as Putin smiled and laughed.
The Russian leader declined to accept a printed copy of the document, directing Wallace to leave the copy on a side table.
Although he denied a role in the U.S. election, Putin also defended the release of information hacked from Democrats, and criticized the Democratic Party’s conduct that was exposed. He said Democrats should apologize for their conduct exposed in the hacked documents.
WATCH: Putin laughs at election meddling allegations pic.twitter.com/jsnO3igZUL
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) July 16, 2018
“Was it rigging of facts? Was it forgery of facts? That the important thing, the point that I’m trying to make. Was there any false information planted? No, it wasn’t,” Putin said.
“These hackers — I will get back to it, just bear with me for a moment,” Putin continued. “They hacked a certain email account and there was an information about manipulation conducted within the Democratic Party to incline the process in favor of one candidate and as far as I know the entire party leadership resigned. They admitted the fact of their manipulation, so that’s one thing. Manipulation of the public opinion should stop and an apology should be made to the public at large instead of looking for those responsible or the party at fault.”
Putin professed that “I’m not interested in this issue a single bit. It’s the internal political game of the United States. Don’t make the relationship between Russia and the United States, don’t hold it hostage of this internal political struggle. It’s quite clear to me that this is just an internal political struggle and it’s nothing to be proud of for American democracy to use such dirty methods and political rivalry.”
Trump’s Monday statements, while standing alongside Putin at podiums in Finland, ignited domestic furor. The press conference ended with Trump pronouncing that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible campaign collusion with Russia was “a total witch hunt.”
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January 2017 that Russia’s government interfered in the U.S. election to help Trump win. At the joint press conference Monday, Trump said, “my people came to me, [director of national intelligence] Dan Coats came to me and some others saying they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it is not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
[Also read: Trump’s own intelligence chief distances himself from Russian meddling comments]
