China denies hacking Clinton server

The FBI on Wednesday said it has not found “any evidence” that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s private email server was compromised, hours after US President Donald Trump tweeted about a report that claimed China had hacked it.

Trump tweeted on Tuesday evening: “Report just out: ‘China hacked Hillary Clinton’s private Email Server.’ Are they sure it wasn’t Russia (just kidding!)? What are the odds that the FBI and DOJ are right on top of this? Actually, a very big story. Much classified information!”

The tweet was followed by another post shortly after midnight, in which he said: “Hillary Clinton’s Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China. Next move better be by the FBI & DOJ or, after all of their other missteps (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, FISA, Dirty Dossier etc.), their credibility will be forever gone!”

In a brief statement, the FBI said: “The FBI has not found any evidence the servers were compromised.”

FBI and Department of Justice officials have said publicly that there was no evidence Clinton’s server was hacked by a foreign power, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

Former FBI director James Comey said at a July 2016 news conference that the FBI did not find direct evidence that the sever had been successfully hacked, though he also acknowledged that, “given the nature of the system and of the actors potentially involved”, it would have been unlikely for the bureau to find such direct evidence, according to the AP.

China’s Foreign Ministry said such accusations were nothing new.

“It is not the first time that we were accused of such things,” the ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday.

Cybersecurity is a global issue concerning the interests of all countries and must be protected by the international community, Hua said.

“China is a staunch champion of cybersecurity and firmly opposes and cracks down on all forms of cyberattacks and espionage activities,” she said.