US spy chief rejects Trump's attack over Russia dossier
Washington (CNN)The US director of national intelligence has denied that the intelligence community leaked claims that Russia holds compromising personal and financial information on President-elect Donald Trump.
In an unusual statement on Wednesday evening that highlighted tensions between spy chiefs and the incoming president, James Clapper, a key adviser to the US President on security and intelligence, rejected a suggestion by Trump that the agencies were responsible for the story going public.
Clapper said he told Trump that intelligence agencies made no judgment about the reliability of the allegations.
The claims were summarized in a two-page synopsis prepared for Trump and Barack Obama ahead of a national security briefing last week. Clapper's statement amounted to the first public confirmation from a US official of CNN's story that the synopsis existed and had been put together for the President, President-elect and eight Congressional leaders.
In his first news conference as President-elect on Wednesday, Trump railed on the US intelligence agencies, suggesting they were responsible for leaking the "nonsense" to the media. Any such move by the agencies would be a "tremendous blot on their record," he said.
Before speaking with reporters, Trump went further in his attack. He said in a tweet: "Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to 'leak' into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?" ... [more at the link]