Donald Trump Says He's 'Never Spoken' to Vladimir Putin

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ABC News(DORAL, Fla.) — Donald Trump said he has “never spoken” to Vladimir Putin amid allegations that his campaign colluded with the Russian president to hack Democratic National Committee emails. But the Republican presidential nominee encouraged Putin to find Hillary Clinton’s missing emails.

“I’ve never spoken to him. I don’t know anything about him other than he will respect me,” Trump said during a press conference Wednesday morning in Doral, Florida. “I have nothing to do with Russia.”

“By the way, if they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails. I hope they do,” Trump continued. “They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted.”

A handful of cybersecurity firms have concluded that Russian hackers were the likely culprits of the DNC email release that was published by Wikileaks last week. An executive at Fidelis told ABC News on Monday that Russians were to blame “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that accusations that Moscow was responsible for the hack are “absurd.”

“If it is Russia,” Trump said at the press conference Wednesday, “It shows how little respect they have for our country.”

He added: “It’s probably not Russia.”

The real estate mogul said that, as president of the United States, he would be “so much better for U.S.-Russian relations.” But when asked if he would call on Putin to not meddle with the U.S. election, Trump said: “I’m not going to tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?”

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