New York - President-elect Donald Trump
escalated a fight with US spy agencies on Wednesday, nine days
before he takes over their command as president, and accused
them of practices reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
The Republican said leaks from the intelligence community
led to some US media outlets reporting unsubstantiated claims
that he was caught in a compromising position in Russia.
"I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the
intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to
be so false and fake out. I think it's a disgrace, and I say
that ... that's something that Nazi Germany would have done and
did do," Trump told a news conference in New York.
For the first time, Trump acknowledged that Russia likely
hacked the Democratic National Committee and the emails of other
top Democrats during the 2016 presidential election.
But he said other countries were also hacking the United
States and defended his goal of better ties with Russian
President Vladimir Putin.
Trump called a dossier that makes salacious claims about him
in Russia "fake news" and "phony stuff."
Trump's comments are likely to intensify tensions between
U.S. intelligence agencies and the president-elect, who
initially disparaged their conclusion that a Russian government
hacking campaign was aimed at boosting his candidacy against
Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Two US officials said the allegations about Trump, 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 Obama.
CNN reported on Tuesday about the existence of the memo and
BuzzFeed published a fuller 35-page document outlining the
allegations.
One US official said investigators had so far been unable
to confirm material about Trump's 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.
In the news conference, Trump declined to answer whether
anyone connected to him or the campaign had contact with Moscow
during the presidential campaign, and said he had no loans or
business deals with Russia.