President Trump put blame on his predecessor for not stopping Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“Anything the Russians did concerning the 2016 Election was done while Obama was President. He was told about it and did nothing! Most importantly, the vote was not affected,” Trump wrote in a tweet hours after a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report was released by the Justice Department.
Anything the Russians did concerning the 2016 Election was done while Obama was President. He was told about it and did nothing! Most importantly, the vote was not affected.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2019
Mueller brought indictments against several Russians and Russian entities for interfering in U.S. election during the course of his 22-month investigation.
The Internet Research Agency, a Russian company with ties to the Russian government, sought to sow discord among American voters via social media disinformation campaigns, Mueller’s investigation concluded. Officials from Russia’s military intelligence service are also accused of hacking into the computers and emails of Democrats.
Former President Barack Obama said after the 2016 election that he did not retaliate against the Russians when U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Russia was trying to help Trump win the election because he feared the Russians would try to “hamper vote counting.”
Obama said he confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a G-20 meeting in China weeks before the election, warning him “to cut it out, there were going to be serious consequences if he did not.”
The then-president also has said he downplayed the Russians’ actions at the time because he did not want to make it appear that he was trying to help Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton beat Trump.
Before he left office, Obama imposed sanctions on Russia for the election interference.
