Republican 'associate' of Michael Flynn alleges he 'tried to obtain Hillary Clinton emails from Russian hackers'

Peter Smith reportedly reached out to hacker groups to access the former Secretary of State's emails

Mike Flynn arrives for a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington (Evan Vucci/AP)

A researcher who claimed to be linked to former national security adviser Mike Flynn, reportedly tried to access Hillary Clinton’s private emails during the 2016 presidential campaign

Peter W Smith, a long time operative with Donald Trump's Republican Party, assembled a team to look for approximately 33,000 emails that Ms Clinton said she deleted from her private email server.

The US leader challenged Russian hackers to uncover them during the campaign.

Mr Smith believed the emails had already been obtained by Russian hackers, and that they may provide evidence of wrongdoing by Ms Clinton.

He is also alleged to have told colleagues that he was working on behalf of Mr Flynn, who Aater just 23 days on the job, was forced to resign as national security adviser, over revelations that he had discussed lifting US sanctions on Russia with their ambassador to Washington, and that he lied to the US vice-president about that conversation.

“He said, ‘I’m talking to Michael Flynn about this—if you find anything, can you let me know?’” Eric York, a computer-security expert who worked with Mr Smith told The Wall Street Journal.

Mr Smith also told hacker groups that he had a line of communication to Mr Flynn, and sent at least one email offering to make introductions to Mr Flynn’s son, the newspaper reported. He also said the younger Mr Flynn was aiding in his efforts.

The Republican operative further claimed that he had helped Mr Flynn in attempting to form relationships with Russian officials during the presidential transition period.

Mr Flynn’s extensive contacts with people inside both Russia and Turkey have made him a focus of ongoing investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

He has been subpoenaed to testify in front of the House intelligence committee, but is expected to plead the fifth.

US intelligence agencies have accused Russian operatives of accessing emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign workers and releasing them to the media in an attempt to sway the election in favour of her opponent, Donald Trump.

Mr Smith told The WSJ that he and his team of lawyers, technology experts, and Russian-speaking investigators had heard from five different hacker groups who said they were in possession of Ms Clinton’s emails.

“We knew the people who had these were probably around the Russian government,” he said.

The emails, however, were never released. Mr Smith died on 14 May, 2017 – 10 days after he spoke with the newspaper.