Trump slams US intel’s ‘phoney’ Russia report

New York, January 11

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday angrily denounced the publishing of claims that he had been caught in a compromising position in Russia and attacked US intelligence agencies over the leak of the information.

“I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out there,” Trump told a news conference. He called the dossier that makes salacious claims about him “fake news” and “phoney stuff”.

“I think it's a disgrace ... That's something that Nazi Germany would have done,” the Republican said days ahead of his inauguration.

Trump acknowledged that Russia likely hacked the Democratic National Committee and the emails of other top Democrats during the 2016 presidential election, but defended his goal of better ties with Moscow. “If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability,” Trump told about 250 reporters jammed into the lobby at his New York offices.

Trump, who said he hoped for a good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin but could not guarantee it, said he had asked intelligence officials for a report on defences against hacking in 90 days.

The dossier that emerged late on Tuesday was first reported by CNN. BuzzFeed published the full document. Two US officials said the allegations, which one called "unsubstantiated," were contained in a two-page memo appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election that was presented last week to Trump and to President Barack Obama.

Russia denies claim

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

HIS FIRST PRESS MEET AS PRESIDENT-ELECT

• I said I will be the greatest jobs producer that God ever created, and I mean that.
• My two sons —Donald Jr and Eric — are going to be running company. They’re not going to discuss with me its operations
• We're going to file a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. We're going to release a healthcare plan which will be far more effective and much cheaper.
• We’re going to build a wall. I don’t wanna wait. Mexico in some form will reimburse us. Whether that’s a tax, or it’s a payment... it will happen.
• If you want to move to another country and fire hardworking American workers... there will be a major border tax on these companies that are leaving and getting away with murder.