Russia has damaging details about him, Trump told

Classified documents presented last week to President-elect Donald Trump included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him. File picture: Evan Vucci

Classified documents presented last week to President-elect Donald Trump included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him. File picture: Evan Vucci

Published Jan 11, 2017

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Washington - Classified documents that the

heads of four US intelligence agencies presented last week to

President-elect Donald Trump included claims that Russian

intelligence operatives have compromising information about him,

two US officials said on Tuesday evening.

They told Reuters the claims, which one called

"unsubstantiated," were contained in a two-page memo appended to

a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election that US intelligence officials presented to Trump and President Barack

Obama last week.

Trump responded on Tuesday evening in a tweet calling the

reports: "FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!" The Trump

transition team did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

One of the officials, both of whom requested anonymity to

discuss classified matters, said the Federal Bureau of

Investigation and other US agencies are continuing to

investigate the credibility and accuracy of the claims.

They are included in opposition research reports made

available last year to Democrats and U.S. officials by a former

British intelligence official, most of whose past work US officials consider credible.

The official said investigators so far have been unable to

confirm the material about Trump financial and personal

entanglements with Russian businessmen and others whom US intelligence analysts have concluded are Russian intelligence

officers or working on behalf of Russian intelligence. Some

material in the reports produced by the former British

intelligence officer has proved to be erroneous, the official

said.

The FBI declined comment.

The charges that Russia attempted to compromise New York

real estate businessman Trump were presented to the FBI and

other US government officials last summer and have been

circulating for months.

The FBI initially took the material seriously, said the

sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the

sensitivity of the issue, which was first reported by CNN.

However, the FBI failed to act on the material, and the

former British intelligence officer broke off contact about

three weeks before the November election, they said.

The warning of information about Russia's compromising

claims follows growing US intelligence and law enforcement

concerns about what Director of National Intelligence James

Clapper has called "multifaceted" Russian influence and

espionage operations in Europe and the United States.

In addition to hacking computer networks and spreading

propaganda and fake news, it includes efforts to cultivate

business and political leaders and find compromising personal,

financial and other information on persons of interest, US intelligence officials said.

The classified briefings last week were presented to Obama

and Trump by Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, Central

Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan and National Security

Agency Director Mike Rogers.

US intelligence chiefs included a classified summary of

the material to make Trump aware that it is circulating among

intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress, government

officials and others, one of the officials said.

An unclassified intelligence report released on Friday

concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an

effort to help Trump's electoral chances by discrediting

Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign.

The report said U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded

that as part of the effort Russia's military intelligence

agency, the GRU, used intermediaries such as WikiLeaks and

others to release emails it hacked from the Democratic National

Committee and top Democrats. 

Reuters

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