HARTFORD - President Donald Trump wrapped up the Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid questions surrounding the recent indictment of hacking and spying into the 2016 election.
The 29 page indictment stops short of saying the interference changed the outcome of the election, but it does go into great detail about the lengths Russian intelligence officials went to hack and spy on emails and computers of Democratic political operatives and agencies.
“During today's meeting I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person. Spent a great deal of time talking about it, and President Putin may very well want to address it,” said President Trump.
The hacker gained access to financial information, social security numbers, names and detailed voter information. The allegations are part of White House Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment that named 12 officials.
Officials in Connecticut are calling on the President to pursue extraditing those alleged spies to have them stand trial in the United States.
At the end of today's summit, the Trump and Putin held a joint news conference where the President flat out denied any collusion while President Putin said there is no proof to show hacking or spying.
FOX61 spoke today with Senator Chris Murphy and a political science professor from the University of New Haven.
"I think we all have to really really worry right now about what Russia knows about Donald Trump about what Vladimir Putin has on Donald Trump that would make him do something that is so clearly an effort to side with Russia against the United States," said Sen. Murphy.
Professor Matthew Schmidt is a National Security and Political Science Professor at the University of New Haven.
"President Trump said, I trust both sides. I trust my intelligence people and the Russian intelligence people, which is extraordinary. It’s a slap in the face to the entire American intelligence community."
Senator Richard Blumenthal called on the President to do three things that he said would discourage Russia from hacking. He said that includes imposing strong sanctions, naming and shaming Russian officials who have hidden investments in the United States and using counter cyber-attack technology in coordination with our allies.
"The voters and any individuals in this country who were victims of this crime and it is a crime to steal this information, should be alerted and warned so they can take precautions against identity theft," said Sen. Blumenthal.
The indictment claims that the cyber-attacks continued until about a month prior to the election and said that Russian spies were able to look at keystrokes, take screenshots and remove data from computers.