Putin echoes Trump: Allegations of Russian election interference are 'fiction' invented by Democrats

pulse

May 30, 2017 10:01 PM

Putin said that claims of Russian election meddling are driven by the "desire of those who lost the US elections" to save face.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that allegations of Russian meddling in the US presidential election are "fiction" invented by the Democrats in order to explain Hillary Clinton's loss.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Putin reaffirmed his strong denial of Russian involvement in the hacking of Democratic emails. The interview was recorded during Putin’s Monday trip to Paris and released Tuesday.

He said the claims of Russian meddling are driven by the "desire of those who lost the US elections to improve their standing by accusing Russia of interfering."

Putin added that the "people who lost the vote hate to acknowledge that they indeed lost because the person who won was closer to the people and had a better understanding of what people wanted."

Trump on Tuesday suggested that Russian officials were "laughing" over continued coverage of Russian election meddling.

The California Republican initially spearheaded the House intelligence committee's Russia probe, but stepped aside after a string of controversial actions that raised questions about his independence leading the investigation.

Nunes drew intense scrutiny after it emerged that he met with a secret source on the White House grounds the day before he briefed the president on information that showed Trump and his advisers may have had their communications "incidentally collected" by the intelligence community during the transition period.

Following an announcement from the House Ethics Committee that it was investigating whether Nunes had disclosed classified information without authorization, he stepped aside from the House's Russia investigation on April 6.

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