Trump furious at reports he says are ‘fake news’
Print Edition
DONALD Trump, the US president-elect, said yesterday that Russia had never tried to sway his actions and furiously blamed US intelligence agencies for news reports that Moscow had compiled compromising information on him.
In a series of Twitter posts, Trump accused intelligence agencies of taking “one last shot” at him by leaking the information. “Are we living in Nazi Germany?” he asked.
Trump slammed as “fake news” reports that classified documents presented to him last week by the heads of four US intelligence agencies included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him.
“Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA — NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” Trump tweeted.
Trump, who was due to hold his first news conference in nearly six months yesterday, pointed to Kremlin denials of the reports on the dossier that emerged late on Tuesday.
“Russia just said the unverified report paid for by political opponents is ‘A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE.’ Very unfair!” he wrote on Twitter.
‘Total nonsense’
The Kremlin said yesterday it was “total nonsense” that Russian officials had assembled a file of compromising information on Trump.
Reince Priebus, who will be Trump’s White House chief of staff, called the Russian dossier report “phony baloney garbage.” He told NBC’s “Today” show he had raised the matter with Trump. “He said it was ‘total garbage and I’m keeping it clean,’” Priebus said.
Even before the reports, Russia was likely to take center stage at Trump’s first formal session with reporters since he won the November 8 presidential election. It is scheduled for 11am at his New York offices.
The Republican president-elect has long said he hopes to improve ties with Moscow, but his efforts will come under intense scrutiny after US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia used cyber attacks and other tactics to try to tilt the presidential election in his favor over Clinton.
At the same time in Washington, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, is likely to be grilled at his Senate confirmation hearing over a long business relationship with Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin.
There was an unpredictable element to Trump’s news conference, given his repeated criticism of the US news media and his belief that many news organizations favored Clinton in the presidential campaign.
Trump, a New York real estate developer, has been under pressure to separate himself from his global business operations to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest once he succeeds President Barack Obama.
After initially declaring there was no law that prohibited him from maintaining control of his business while serving as president, Trump switched gears in December and said legal documents were being crafted “which take me completely out of business operations.”
Trump has said his two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will manage his businesses and no new deals will be done during his time in office, but has offered few details.
He has not said he would divest from his companies, a step some ethics experts say he should take. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, announced plans on Monday to divest much of his own business holdings in preparation for taking a senior advisory role.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
