Donald Trump: Russia ‘may have’ interfered with 2016 Presidential election

WASHINGTON, Jul 6: Five months into his presidency, Donald Trump for the first time accepted that Russia “could have” interfered with the 2016 US elections. He, however, used the occasion to attack former president Barack Obama for failing to stop Russia from meddling with the elections despite prior knowledge of it.
Fielding questions from the media, Trump, who is Poland, said: “Well I think it could very well have been Russia, could have been other countries, I won’t be specific. I think a lot of people interfere. It has been happening for a long time, it has been happening for many many years.”
Blaming Obama for failing to act despite CIA briefing him months on the issue before the presidential vote, Trump said: “Now, the thing I have to mention is: Obama was president when he find out about this in August. The election was in November. That was a lot time. He did nothing about it. They say he choked. Well, I don’t think he chocked, when he though Hillary would have won the election, he said let’s not do anything about it. Had it been the other way he would have done something about. He was told in early August that Russia was trying to get involved or meddling pretty strongly with the election. The reason was he thought Hillary was going to win…”
Trump will be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Germany on Friday.
US intelligence agencies strongly believe that Russia may have interfered with the 2016 Presidential elections and are investigating links between Trump’s campaign and Moscow. With no evidence of collusion emerging so far, Trump dismissed the story as “fake news”.
Investigators are now looking into the role of Russian-generated fake stories aimed at undermining Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Guardian reported on Wednesday.  Brad Parscale, head of Trump’s digital camp, was summoned by a US committee looking into Moscow’s interference in the 2016 US election.
Trump came under strong criticism from all quarters for firing FBI director James Comey who was probing fired national security adviser Michael Flynn’s links with Russia. Agencies