REUTERS-President-elect
Donald Trump escalated a fight with U.S. spy agencies on Wednesday, just 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 U.S. 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.
Trump acknowledged
for the first time that Russia likely hacked the Democratic National Committee
and the emails of top Democrats during the 2016 presidential election. "I
think it was Russia,” he said, pointing out that other countries were also
hacking the United States.
Trump’s comments
about spy agencies such as the CIA are likely to intensify tensions between the
intelligence community and the president-elect, who initially disparaged its
conclusion that a Russian hacking campaign was aimed at boosting his candidacy
against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump, who takes
office on Jan. 20, called a dossier that makes salacious claims about him in
Russia "fake news" and "phony stuff."
U.S. Director of
National Intelligence James Clapper said he spoke with Trump on Wednesday evening
and told the president-elect he did not believe the media leaks came from the
intelligence community.
"I expressed my
profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press, and we both
agreed that they are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national
security," Clapper said in a statement.
He defended
including the dossier in the intelligence report Trump received on Friday,
saying "part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided
with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national
security."
Clapper said he
emphasized to Trump that the dossier was not produced by the U.S. intelligence
community and intelligence officials have not judged whether the information is
reliable.
MEMO AND REPORTS
Two U.S. 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 President Barack
Obama.
Trump said, without
offering evidence, that the news he had been briefed on the memo "was
released by maybe the (U.S.) intelligence agencies. Who knows? But maybe the
intelligence agencies which would be a tremendous blot on their record if they
in fact did that."
CNN reported on
Tuesday about the existence of the memo. BuzzFeed published a fuller 35-page
document produced by Christopher Steele, a former British foreign intelligence
official, that outlined the allegations of compromising behavior by Trump and
alleged links between him and people in Russia.
The claims were
included in opposition research reports that were made available to Democrats
and U.S. officials last year.
One U.S. official
said investigators had so far been unable to confirm material about Trump's
financial and personal entanglements with Russian businessmen and others whom
U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded are Russian intelligence officers or
working on behalf of Russian intelligence.
Some material in
Steele's reports has proved to be erroneous, the U.S. official said.
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.
He defended his goal
of better ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "If Putin likes
Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability," he said.
The New York real
estate developer complained about leaks from meetings he has with intelligence
agencies and suggested they were to blame.
"I have many
meetings with intelligence. And every time I meet, people are reading about it.
Somebody's leaking it out," he said.
PROTESTS, CHEERS
The long-awaited
news conference was a freewheeling affair, with Trump aides cheering from the
sidelines at one point and the president-elect angrily refusing to take
questions from a CNN reporter.
Outside, about a
dozen protesters gathered behind a police barricade across the street from
Trump Tower, holding signs with the slogans "Dump Trump" and
"Allegiance To America Not Russia" as Fifth Avenue traffic streamed
by.
It was Trump's first
news conference in about six months and about 250 reporters jammed into the
lobby at his Manhattan offices.
Questions extended
to many issues that will face him when he takes office. He vowed to soon begin
negotiations with Mexico on building a border wall and said he will nominate a
Supreme Court justice to fill the seat left by the death of conservative
Antonin Scalia within two weeks of taking office.
He also said he would
offer a plan to repeal and replace Obama’s signature health care law once his
choice for health and human services, Tom Price, is confirmed by the Senate.
Trump gestured to
large stacks of manila folders as he described how he will separate himself from
his global business operations, which includes hotels and golf courses as well
as assets like a winery and modeling agency, to avoid conflicts of interest
once he takes office.
He also talked about
how he plans to bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas plants, slamming
drug companies for "getting away with murder" on pricing.
U.S. stocks slipped
to session lows, before recovering ground, as healthcare stocks took a beating
following Trump's comments on drug pricing.
REUTERS
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