Openly asks Russia to “find” Clinton’s missing emails

At a July 27, 2016 press conference, Trump addressed Russia directly on live television, saying “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing” from Hillary Clinton’s private server and promising that the press would be “rewarded mightily” if they did. Politico, NPR, BBC, and later reporting note that he made the remark while denying any relationship with Vladimir Putin and that he later claimed it was “sarcasm,” even as intelligence and Mueller-report timelines show Russian actors began targeting Clinton-related accounts around the same day. By publicly inviting a foreign adversary to obtain and release material from his opponent’s deleted emails, then brushing it off as a joke, he normalized the idea that foreign interference in a U.S. election was acceptable—as long as it benefitted him.

"Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing." — July 27, 2016 press conference where Trump addressed Russia directly about Clinton’s deleted emails while discussing his supposed lack of ties to Vladimir Putin, later claiming the remark was “sarcasm.”