Looking straight into the camera, he said: "Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will be rewarded mightily by the press."
For Trump, it was another chance to land a zinger on the deleted emails from the former secretary of state's personal email server.
In the aftermath, as people lined up to criticise the businessman for his remarks, he insisted he was simply being "sarcastic".
He will inevitably blame the media.
But it's worth taking a moment to actually consider the meaning of all this.
American intelligence agencies have told the White House they have "high confidence" the hacking was the work of the Russian government.
If that is indeed true, by releasing the hacked emails when it did, it appears the Kremlin is trying to influence the US election.
Not only that - one of the candidates for the US presidency is essentially urging a foreign power to break US law by hacking into a private computer network. By publishing the emails, it is possible whoever did so could be charged with espionage.
This comes a week after the Republican Party agreed on a platform which condemned cyber espionage and promised a forcible response against anyone suspected of doing it.
Senior Republicans immediately weighed in, as they are often forced to do when Trump makes the headlines.
Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives and the most senior elected Republican in the country, described Russia as a "global menace led by a devious thug".
Before claiming he was being "sarcastic", Trump tweeted that if Russia or any other country had Clinton's emails, they should turn them over to the FBI.
But there is perhaps a comment that needs some attention, lost in the typical US coverage of a Trump controversy. When asked if he would recognise Crimea as "Russian territory", he said he'd be looking in to that.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2014 - just after the Russian annexation of part of Ukraine - calling on states, international organisations and agencies not to recognise the changed status.
Trump's reluctance to condemn Russia is a huge switch of Republican Party policy and certainly cuts across a lot of US foreign policy.
Accepting the Republican nomination, Trump has taken on new responsibilities. His comment on hacking was an attempt at humour. It backfired.
That is no longer a luxury he has.
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