Trump compares US spy agencies to Nazis
> President-elect calls Russia dossier ‘phony stuff’
NEW YORK: President-elect Donald Trump escalated a fight with US spy agencies yesterday, just nine days before he takes over their command as president, and accused them of practices reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
The Republican said leaks from the intelligence community led to some US media outlets reporting unsubstantiated claims that he was caught in a compromising position in Russia.
“I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information, that turned out to be so false and fake, out. I think it’s a disgrace, and I say that ... that’s something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do,” Trump told a news conference in New York.
Trump acknowledged for the first time that Russia likely hacked the Democratic National Committee and the emails of top Democrats during the 2016 election.
“I think it was Russia,” he said, adding other nations were also hacking the US.
Trump’s comments about spy agencies such as the CIA are likely to intensify tensions between the intelligence community and the president-elect, who initially disparaged its conclusion that a Russian hacking campaign was aimed at boosting his candidacy against Hillary Clinton.
Trump called a dossier that makes salacious claims about him in Russia “fake news” and “phony stuff”.
US director of national intelligence James Clapper said he told Trump yesterday he did not believe the media leaks came from the intelligence community.
“I expressed my profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press, and we both agreed that they are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security,” he said in a statement.
He defended including the dossier in the intelligence report Trump received on Friday, saying “part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security”.
Trump said, without offering evidence, that the news he had been briefed on the memo “was released by maybe the (US) intelligence agencies. Who knows? But maybe the intelligence agencies which would be a tremendous blot on their record if they in fact did that”. – Reuters