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
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