Trump: Intelligence ‘probably’ leaked ‘phony allegations’
President-elect Donald Trump struck a new blow in his war of words with the intelligence community on Friday, tweeting that the intelligence community “probably” leaked recent reports against him “even knowing there is no proof.”
On Tuesday, CNN reported that Trump had been briefed by top intelligence officials on a dossier that claimed Russia possessed potentially compromising information about him. Hours later, Buzzfeed published the 35-page dossier of unverified material, which contains multiple known errors.
Unconfirmed reports emerged Thursday that former British intelligence official Christopher Steele had initially begun compiling the dossier at the behest of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush during the Republican presidential primary, reports Bush’s team strongly denied.
It now turns out that the phony allegations against me were put together by my political opponents and a failed spy afraid of being sued….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2017
Trump went on to blame “both Democrats and Republicans” for the reports, though he laid them at the feet of U.S. intelligence agencies.
Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans – FAKE NEWS! Russia says nothing exists. Probably…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2017
released by “Intelligence” even knowing there is no proof, and never will be. My people will have a full report on hacking within 90 days!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2017
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday that he had informed Trump the dossier had neither been confirmed nor leaked by American agencies.
“I emphasized that this document is not a U.S. Intelligence Community product and that I do no believe the leaks came from within the IC,” Clapper said. “The IC has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable, and we do not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions.”
The president-elect and the intelligence community have repeatedly contradicted each other on last year’s hacking of Democratic groups and individuals, which the FBI and CIA say was ordered by Russia with the intention of helping put Trump in the White House.
Trump’s public disagreements with U.S. intelligence are highly unusual for a sitting or incoming commander in chief.
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