Trump Appears To Revive Conspiracy Theory On DNC Hack.
PAUL: So President Trump apparently brought up investigating Hillary Clinton in his call to Ukraine's leader.</s>BLACKWELL: He asked President Zelensky to possibly look into a U.S. cyber security firm to find a missing computer server. CNN's Brian Todd has the details.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's one of the more bizarre comments made by President Trump in his phone call with Ukraine's president, the suggestion that somehow a computer server tied to the 2016 election is now mysteriously in Ukraine. According to the rough transcript of the July call, Trump says he'd like his Ukrainian counterpart to, quote, do us favor, and alludes to the Mueller investigation before saying, I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine. They say, CrowdStrike, I guess you have one of your wealthy people, the server they say Ukraine has it. I would like to have the attorney general call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. The only problem, experts say there is no evidence of any of this.</s>ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: This is really a deep state conspiracy theory. It's not supported by the facts.</s>TODD: The server Trump refers to appears to be the Democratic National Committee's server, which federal indictments filed by Robert Mueller say was hacked by the Russians during their 2016 election interference campaign as part of the Kremlin's effort to help get Trump elected. CrowdStrike, which the president mentions, is the cyber security firm hired by the Democratic Committee to investigate the Russian hacks. Trump, in more than 20 interviews, tweets and other public comments, has harped on the debunked idea that the DNC server somehow contains unrevealed evidence and might be in mysterious hands.</s>DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying.</s>TODD: Trump regularly points out that the FBI never had access to the original DNC servers. That's in part because of the FBI's practice with working with copies. But the DNC says none of its original servers were ever missing. The DNC and CrowdStrikes say they ultimately gave the FBI copies of the DNC servers once they determined there was a Russian hack, something then FBI director James Comey didn't object to.</s>JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Best practice, always to get access to the machines themselves but my folks tell me was an appropriate substitute.</s>TODD: So why would the president think someone in Ukraine has a DNC server? We got no response from the White House. CrowdStrike did previously do work for the Ukrainian government but that was totally unrelated to the DNC or the 2016 presidential election. And Trump once mistakenly asserted that CrowdStrike was owned and run by a Ukrainian, a comment apparently driven by online conspiracy theories. Analysts say Trump is either just repeating these false online myths or is trying to misdirect and muddy the waters.</s>HONIG: I think he is looking continually for a counternarrative to the Mueller report, constantly trying to shift the blame.</s>TODD: Then there is the matter of Trump telling the Ukrainian president that he wanted Attorney General Bill Barr to contact the Ukrainians to get to the bottom of the server question. Legal analysts says it would be inappropriate for the attorney general to become involved in any of that. A Justice Department spokeswoman tells CNN, the president didn't ask Barr to contact the Ukrainians on that or any other matter and that Barr never communicated with the Ukrainians on his own. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.</s>PAUL: Thank you so much for being with us this morning.</s>BLACKWELL: The next hour of your New Day starts after a quick break.