FBI Director James Comey briefed President-elect Donald Trump on a two-page summary of an unverified dossier claiming Russia had compromising information on the real estate mogul, CNN reported Thursday.
That contradicts claims by members of Trump’s transition team and other news outlets that intelligence officials never briefed Trump on the two-page addendum to a classified report given to President Obama and leaders in Congress about Russian efforts to interfere with the presidential election.
ABC News and NBC News also reported on the meeting.
Earlier Thursday, Vice President Biden confirmed that he and Obama were briefed on the unverified claims contained in the dossier.
{mosads}The information had apparently been circulating among journalists and politicians in Washington for several months, but was never reported because the contents of the dossier could not be verified.
CNN first reported on Tuesday that Trump had received a summary of the claims. Soon after, Buzzfeed News posted the 35-page dossier, which was allegedly compiled by a former British intelligence officer, in its entirety. It alleges that Russia’s government possesses compromising financial and personal information about Trump and also claims people close to Trump kept in touch with Moscow during the 2016 presidential race.
Trump pushed back against the details of the dossier and the report that he’d been briefed on it at his first press conference as president-elect Wednesday, saying the memos were generated by “sick people.”
At one point he ignored a question from CNN reporter Jim Acosta, calling the network “terrible” and claiming it reports fake news.
“Your organization is terrible,” Trump told Acosta, adding as the journalist tried to ask a question, “Don’t be rude. No, I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news.”