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.