"I did not think" Putin extradite Russian agents charged, says Trump

US President Donald Trump said in a new interview that he had not thought of urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to extradite the dozen Russian officials accused of hacking the e-mails of the Democratic Party, while continuing to blame the Democrats. "Well, I could," Trump said when asked in an interview with CBS News on the extradition of indicted intelligence agents.

"I had not thought about it, but certainly, I will be But again, it was during the Obama administration, they were doing everything that they were during the day. Obama administration. "

AP

" I did not think about it, but again, it was during the Obama administration, they were doing everything they were during the Obama administration, "said Trump about the demand for Russian agents indicted in the Mueller case

The United States did not extradite. treated with R Ussie. Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador to Russia, said Sunday on NBC Meet the Press that the FBI and the US Embassy in Moscow "will work without a doubt" on an official request

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But Huntsman warns that this does not necessarily mean that the Russians "

J SCOTT APPLEWHITE / AP

officials, who stand acc used to interfere in the 2016 campaign by hacking the servers of the Democratic National Committee and stealing emails, adds another explosive element to the highly anticipated Trump summit with Putin in Helsinki

and John Bolton, the president's national security adviser, The possibility that Trump personally asks Putin to hand over indicted individuals at their private summit – especially because of the absence of an extradition treaty.

"It is ridiculous that the President demands something that he can not legally obtain" said on ABC News " This Week . "The Russians take the position – you can like it or not – that their constitution forbids them to extradite Russian citizens."

Bolton also stated that he found "hard to believe" that Putin was not aware of any effort by Russian military officials to interfere in the presidential election

ANDREW HARNIK / AP

Democrats of Congress had already called Trump to cancel his meeting with Putin in light of the indictments, detailed by Rod Rosenstein at a press conference.

In the CBS interview, Trump also claimed that the GOP was not hacked in the same way during the 2016 campaign because the Republican National Committee had better cyber security

" We had better defenses, we had better defenses, so they could not, "said Trump during the CBS interview. "I think the DNC should be ashamed to allow them to be hacked, have bad defenses and be hacked."

The indictments of 12 Russian intelligence agents accused of interfering in the 2016 campaign by hacking servers to the Democratic National Committee and stealing emails, adds another explosive element to the much-anticipated summit of Trump with Putin in Helsinki on Monday.

ALEX BRANDON / AP

John Bolton He felt that it was "hard to believe" that Putin did not "think". was unaware of any effort by the Russian authorities to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election.

Rather than condemn, Trump's first public comments on the hacking indictments It's produced under the Obama administration, rather than its own presidency – a line that he further highlighted during the CBS interview.

He said several times during his European He stated that he did not expect Putin to confess to the interference and therefore he has little recourse.

Trump was personally briefed by US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein shortly before leaving for his seven-day European trip, which covers Monday in the northern capital with Putin's one-on-one summit.

Dozens of congressional Democrats had already called on Trump to cancel his meeting with Putin in light of the charges, Arizona's Senator John McCain, a prominent Republican critic of the president, also urged Trump to cancel his summit with the Russian leader he was "not ready to hold Putin accountable".

But the White House gave no indication that the cancellation of the summit was even considered, and Trump said in his interview to the CBS that he was approaching the meeting with " low expectations "and promised that" Nothing Bad "would emerge from the one-to-one discussion.

"I think it's a good thing to meet – I believe in meetings – I think meeting President Kim was a good thing," Trump said in reference to his summit with the leader North Korean Kim Jong Un.

"I think meeting the Chinese president was a very good thing, I think it's really good, so I have meetings with Russia, China, North Korea, I believe in it, nothing bad will come out of it, and maybe good will come out. "

The range of topics, in addition to the l & # 39; electoral interference, that Trump said that he will raise with Putin includes the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, as well as an arms control agreement dating back to the Reagan era and the prospect a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia in 2011.

– The Washington Post