Donald Trump dares Russia to hack Hillary Clinton emails

Donald Trump sensationally challenged Russia on Wednes-day to hack into Hillary Clinton’s emails as a furious Democratic campaign accused the Republican nominee of inviting foreign spies to meddle in the US presidential election.

At a wide-ranging news conference, the New York billionaire tried to undermine his White House rival, implied that Vlad-imir Putin used a racial slur against President Barack Obama and promised a heyday of US-Russian relations under a Trump presidency.

His remarks provoked outrage from the Clinton campaign and left some Republicans wincing as his running mate hurriedly clarified that the party was not soft on Moscow and Mr Trump tried to roll back his remarks.

Attacking Ms Clinton as she prepares to accept her party’s formal nomination, Ms Trump turned his guns on the email scandal dating back to her time as secretary of state and more than 30,000 emails deleted on grounds of being personal and not related to her job.

“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 mightily by our press,” Mr Trump said.

The Clinton camp responded immediately and furiously. “This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent,” Ms Clinton’s senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan said. “This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue.”

Former CIA chief and defence secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday lambasted Mr Trump for encouraging Russia to find Ms Clinton’s missing emails — a move seen as sanctioning cyber spying by a foreign power, saying such a man cannot be the commander-in-chief of the US.

“As someone who was responsible for protecting our nation from cyber attacks, it is inconceivable to me that any presidential candidate would be this irresponsible. Donald Trump cannot become our commander-in-chief,” Mr Panetta said in his address to the Democratic National Convention.