Donald Trump hits out at 'witch hunt' over claims of Russian intelligence dossier, Kremlin dismisses reports
Updated
President-elect Donald Trump has complained of a "political witch hunt" against him after unconfirmed allegations Russian officials had assembled a file of compromising information about him — reports the Kremlin dismissed as "total nonsense".
Key points:
- US intelligence agencies reportedly presented Trump and Obama with classified documents last week
- Documents allegedly include claims Russian intelligence operatives have "compromising" information on Trump
- The Kremlin says the claims are "pulp fiction"
Unverified claims broadcast by US networks quoting unnamed sources say Russian spy agencies have embarrassing information about Mr Trump that is personally compromising.
US media has also reported that intelligence services have informed the President-elect privately about the allegations, although they have said nothing about the reports publicly.
There are big questions about the veracity of the reports, with even suggestions they were paid for by political enemies of Mr Trump.
The President-elect took to Twitter to dismiss reports as "fake news".
Later, he denied Russia had ever used "leverage" over him.
"I have nothing to do with Russia," he said.
"Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to 'leak' into the public," he said in another Twitter post.
"Are we living in Nazi Germany?"
Addressing reporters on a conference call, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the dossier containing the claims was a hoax which had been dreamt up to further harm US-Russia relations, which are already at their lowest level since the Cold War.
"It is an attempt to damage our bilateral relations. It is pulp fiction," said Mr Peskov, who also roundly dismissed as false assertions in the dossier that he himself was heavily involved in running a Russian campaign to undermine defeated presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"You have to react to this with a certain humour, but there's also a sad side to this. Hysteria is being whipped up to maintain a political witch hunt."
Mr Peskov said the Kremlin did not engage in compiling compromising dossiers on anyone and was focused on building relations with Russia's foreign partners instead.
The allegations come just over a week out from Mr Trump's inauguration. He is also awaiting Congressional approval of his cabinet appointees.
FBI investigating credibility of claims
Classified documents that the heads of four US intelligence agencies presented to Mr Trump last week included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him, two US officials told the Reuters news agency.
They told Reuters the claims, which one called "unsubstantiated", were contained in a two-page memo appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election that US intelligence officials presented to Mr Trump and President Barack Obama last week.
One of the officials, both of whom requested anonymity to discuss classified matters with Reuters, said the FBI and other US agencies are continuing to investigate the credibility and accuracy of the claims.
They are included in opposition research reports made available last year to Democrats and US officials by a former British intelligence official, most of whose past work US officials consider credible.
The charges that Russia attempted to compromise Mr Trump were presented to the FBI and other US Government officials last summer and have been circulating for months.
The FBI initially took the material seriously, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, which was first reported by CNN.
However, the FBI failed to act on the material, and the former British intelligence officer broke off contact about three weeks before the November election, they said.
The official said investigators so far have been unable to confirm the material about Trump financial and personal entanglements with Russian businessmen and others whom US intelligence analysts have concluded are Russian intelligence officers or working on behalf of Russian intelligence.
Some material in the reports produced by the former British intelligence officer has proved to be erroneous, the official said.
Mr Trump had already scandalised Washington by disparaging intelligence assessments that the Kremlin ordered Russian hacking to try to tilt the presidential election in his favour.
He is due to hold a rare news conference on Thursday morning AEDT. He called it to address concerns about his business interests, but the BBC is reporting that the reports of compromising information will likely dominate.
Reuters/ABC
Topics: us-elections, government-and-politics, federal-government, defence-and-national-security, world-politics, united-states, russian-federation
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