Page:Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election.pdf/230

 and. Manafort said that shortly after WikiLeaks's July 22, 2016 release of hacked documents, he spoke to Trump ; Manafort recalled that Trump responded that Manafort should keep Trump updated. Deputy campaign manager Rick Gates said that Manafort was getting pressure about information and that Manafort instructed Gates  status updates on upcoming releases. Around the same time, Gates was with Trump on a trip to an airport, and shortly after the call ended, Trump told Gates that more releases of damaging information would be coming. were discussed within the Campaign, and in the summer of 2016, the Campaign was planning a communications strategy based on the possible release of Clinton emails by WikiLeaks.


 * 3.

In the days that followed WikiLeaks's July 22, 2016 release of hacked DNC emails, the Trump Campaign publicly rejected suggestions that Russia was seeking to aid candidate Trump. On July 26, 2016, Trump tweeted that it was "[c]razy" to suggest that Russia was "dealing with Trump" and that "[f]or the record," he had "ZERO investments in Russia."

In a press conference the next day, July 27, 2016, Trump characterized "this whole thing with Russia" as "a total deflection" and stated that it was "farfetched" and "ridiculous." Trump said that the assertion that Russia had hacked the emails was unproven, but stated that it would give him "no pause" if Russia had Clinton's emails. Trump added, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded