Report claims Russia has dirt on Trump
> Document alleges sex acts with prostitutes in Moscow hotel
WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump was presented last week with classified documents containing allegations that Russian operatives claimed to have compromising information on him, reports said yesterday.
A synopsis of the allegations was attached to the end of a report by US intelligence agencies on Russian interference in the US election, CNN reported.
It based the story on information from multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings.
The synopsis was presented last week to President Barack Obama, Trump and top members of Congress, CNN said.
It included graphic details about Trump’s activities with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel in 2013 which were filmed by the Russian secret service in order to potentially blackmail him in the future, the New York Times reported.
The document also alleges the Russians offered Trump various real estate deals in order to further the Kremlin’s goals, but Trump had declined them.
The information in the 35 pages was compiled by a former British spy, whom CNN said US officials had found to provide credible information in the past.
Trump reacted on Twitter: “FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!”
Details of the report were “widely known among journalists and politicians in Washington”, the Times said.
The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of the allegations, which came mostly from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos, CNN said.
Intelligence chiefs briefed Trump with the information to make him aware that Russia’s claims were circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress and other top US officials, CNN added.
Website Buzzfeed, which published the entire document online, said that some of the information it contained was “unverified and potentially unverifiable” and that the report also included some “clear errors”.
Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, told news website MIC the report was “absolutely silly”.
“It’s so ridiculous on so many levels. Clearly the person who created this did so from their imagination or did so hoping that the liberal media would run with this fake story for whatever rationale they might have,” he said.
Trump spokesman Kellyanne Conway said nothing in the report had been confirmed and pointed out that it was all based on unnamed sources.
As US citizens “we should be concerned that intelligence officials leaked it to the press”, Conway said on NBC.
Brian Fallon, a Clinton campaign spokesmen, said on Twitter the material provided the only credible theory for why Trump refused to accept the intelligence community’s finding that Russia was behind cyber attacks that occurred during the campaign. – dpa