Only a few days after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday evening: “So President Obama knew about Russia before the Election.
“Why didn’t he do something about it?
“Why didn’t he tell our campaign?
“Because it is all a big hoax, that’s why, and he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win!!!”
The latest remarks come after he received huge criticism for siding with the Russian President on the issue of the Kremlin’s efforts to influence the Presidential election.
During the summit, Trump said: “They said they think it’s Russia.
“I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia.
“President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”
However, the US President made a quick U-turn only a few days after the summit by claiming he misspoke during the Hensinki summit.
He said: “I have full faith and support for America’s great intelligence agencies, I always have.
“And I have felt very strongly that, while Russia’s actions had no impact at all on the outcome of the election, let me be totally clear in saying that, and I have said this many times, I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place.
“It could be other people, also.
“There are lots of people out there.”
But by calling the Russian meddling in the election a “big hoax” on Sunday evening on his Twitter account, Trump seems to have contradicted once more the word of his own intelligence agencies.
Since the Helsinki summit, even Republicans usually supportive of Trump’s policies are piling on the pressure.
Newt Gingrich – one of President Trump’s strongest allies – branded the comments during the meeting with Putin “the most serious mistake of his presidency” and urged the US President to immediately correct himself.
Trump also received damning comments from the former CIA director John Brennan, who asserted the President’s conduct at the summit conference was “treasonous”.
The former intelligence chief claimed Trump’s statement was “nothing short of treasonous” and that he was “wholly in the pocket of Putin”.
There is currently an investigation into the possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
US intelligence services have concluded Russian agents had attempted to influence the election in Trump’s favour through a coordinated campaign of fake news and social media bots.
So far 32 individuals and three companies have been either been indicted as part of the probe.
Five of these individuals have pleaded guilty, including three former Trump advisors, although none of the crimes they have admitted to directly relate to collusion with Russia.