Russia has compromising info on President-elect Trump, say explosive claims

Washington, January 11

Donald Trump was on Wednesday hit by sensational claims that he was “cultivated” by Russia for years and Moscow has compromising information on him, drawing an angry response from the President-elect who dismissed it as a “witch hunt” and likened it to as “living in Nazi Germany”.

The allegations were part of the classified report presented to outgoing US President Barack Obama and his successor Trump last week by the heads of four premier US intelligence agencies, including FBI and CIA. They were part of the report on Russian interference in the 2016 polls, reports said.

Trump responded by describing the news as fabricated.

“FAKE NEWS—A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!” Trump tweeted after The Washington Post broke the story.

A senior US official, with access to the document, said the allegations were presented at least in part to underscore that Russia appeared to have collected embarrassing information on both major candidates but released only material that might harm Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

This is a reflection of Russian motivation that bolstered US spy agencies’ conclusion that Moscow sought to help Trump win the presidential election, the daily said.

The two-page synopsis further claimed that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, a CNN report said.

Popular news website BuzzFeed reported that an “explosive” but “unsubstantiated” dossier, which alleged that Russia has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Trump for years and gained compromising information about him, has been circulating among elected officials, intelligence agents, and journalists for weeks.

BuzzFeed also released a copy of the 35-page report.

“The document was prepared for political opponents of Trump by a person who is understood to be a former British intelligence agent,” the website said.

Russia, however, denied claims that it had gathered compromising information on Trump.

“The Kremlin does not have compromising information on Trump,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in Moscow.

He called the claims as “total fake” and “an obvious attempt to harm our bilateral relations”.

Peskov also denied allegations that the Kremlin gathered compromising information on Clinton. The Kremlin spokesman described the dossier as “pulp fiction.”

After Russia’s rebuttal, Trump again tweeted, saying, “Russia just said the unverified report paid for by political opponents is ‘A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE.’ Very unfair!”.

“Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA—NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” he said.

Trump also slammed intelligence agencies, saying they should never have allowed this “fake news to ‘leak’ into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?” — PTI