PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. We do host it. And we hope we do as good a job. That's very nice. That will go to my son, Barron. We have no question. In fact, Melania, here you go. (Laughter.)
Okay.
SANDERS: The final question from the United States will go to Jonathan Lemire, from the AP.
Q Thank you. A question for each President. President Trump, you first. Just now, President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. What - who - my first question for you, sir, is, who do you believe?
My second question is, would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin - would you denounce what happened in 2016? And would you warn him to never do it again?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: So let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven't they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee? I've been wondering that. I've been asking that for months and months, and I've been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know, where is the server? And what is the server saying?
With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me - Dan Coats came to me and some others - they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it's not Russia.
I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server. But I have - I have confidence in both parties. I really believe that this will probably go on for a while, but I don't think it can go on without finding out what happened to the server. What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers? They're missing. Where are they? What happened to Hillary Clinton's emails? Thirty-three thousand emails gone - just gone. I think, in Russia, they wouldn't be gone so easily. I think it's a disgrace that we can't get Hillary Clinton's 33,000 emails.
So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an incredible offer; he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer.
Okay? Thank you.
PRESIDENT PUTIN: (As interpreted.) I'd like to add something to this. After all, I was an intelligence officer myself, and I do know how dossiers are made up. Just a second. That's the first thing.
Now, the second thing: I believe that Russia is a democratic state, and I hope you're not denying this right to your own country. You're not denying that United States is a democracy. Do you believe the United States is a democracy? And if so, if it is a democratic state, then the final conclusion in this kind of dispute an only be delivered by a trial by the court, not by the executive - by the law enforcement.
For instance, the Concord company that was brought up is being accused - it's been accused of interference. But this company does not constitute the Russian State. It does not represent the Russian State. And I brought several examples before.
Well, you have a lot of individuals in the United States - take George Soros, for instance - with multibillion capitals, but it doesn't make him - his position, his posture - the posture of the United States? No, it does not. Well, it's the same case. There is the issue of trying a case in the court, and the final say is for the court to deliver.
We're now talking about the private - the individuals, and not about particular states. And as far as the most recent allegation is concerned about the Russian intelligence officers, we do have an intergovernmental treaty. Please, do send us the request. We will analyze it properly and we'll send a formal response.
And as I said, w can extend this cooperation but we should do it on a reciprocal basis, because we would await our Russian counterparts to provide us access to the persons of interest for us whom we believe can have something to do with intelligence services.
Let's discuss the specific issues, and not use the Russia and U.S. relationship as a loose change - the loose change for this internal political struggle.
Q My question for President - for President Putin. Thank you. Two questions for you, sir. Can you tell me what President Trump may have indicated to you about officially recognizing Crimea as part of Russia?
And then secondly, sir, does the Russian government have any compromising material on President Trump or his family?
PRESIDENT PUTIN: (As interpreted.) (Laughs.) President Trump and - well, the posture on President Trump on Crimea is well known, and he stands firmly by it. He continued to maintain that it was illegal to annex it. We - our viewpoint is different. We held a referendum in strict compliance with the U.N. Charter and the international legislation. For us, this issue - we (inaudible) to this issue.
And now to the compromising material. Yeah, I did heard these rumors that we allegedly collected compromising material on Mr. Trump when he was visiting Moscow.
Now, distinguished colleague, let me tell you this: When President Trump was at Moscow back then, I didn't even know that he was in Moscow. I treat President Trump with utmost respect. But back then, when he was a private individual, a businessman, nobody informed me that he was in Moscow.
Well, let's take St. Petersburg Economic Forum, for instance. There were over 500 American businessmen - high-ranking, high-level ones. I don't even remember the last names of each and every one of them. Well, do you remember - do you think that we try to collect compromising material on each and every single one of them? Well, it's difficult to imagine an utter nonsense of a bigger scale than this.
Well, please, just disregard these issues and don't think about this anymore again.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: It would have been out long ago. And if anybody watched Peter Strzok testify over the last couple of days - and I was in Brussels watching it - it was a disgrace to the FBI, it was a disgrace to our country, and, you would say, that was a total witch hunt.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you.
