Washington [US], August 14 : United States President Donald Trump said that he"could" raise the issue of the alleged Russian hacking of the US federal court filing system during his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska later this week.
"I guess I could... They hack in, that's what they do. They are good at it. We are good at it; we are actually better at it. I have heard about it," Trump told reporters at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday (local time).
His remarks came after reports that investigators have found evidence suggesting Russia's involvement in a recent breach of the US federal court document system, which contained highly sensitive records that could reveal sources and individuals charged with national security crimes, The New York Times reported.
The disclosure came just days before Trump's scheduled meeting with Putin in Alaska on Friday, where he plans to push for an end to the war in Ukraine.
While it remains unclear whether Russian intelligence or another country was behind the hack, officials have described it as a years-long effort to infiltrate the system. According to The New York Times, some searches targeted mid-level criminal cases in New York City and other jurisdictions, several involving defendants with Russian and Eastern European surnames.
Court administrators recently warned Justice Department officials, clerks, and chief judges in federal courts that "persistent and sophisticated cyber threat actors have recently compromised sealed records," according to an internal memo. The advisory urged immediate removal of the most sensitive documents from the system.
"This remains an URGENT MATTER that requires immediate action," the memo read, referring to guidance first issued in early 2021 after the system was initially infiltrated.
The breach is believed to have exposed documents related to criminal activity with overseas links across at least eight district courts. Last month, chief judges of district courts across the country were quietly told to transfer such cases off the regular system and were initially instructed not to discuss the matter with other judges in their districts.
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