Top US intelligence official says he told Trump about unsubstantiated Russia report
James Clapper released a statement Wednesday night saying he informed Trump that the US intelligence community "has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable," the statement read.
A dossier, allegedly produced by a former British intelligence agent, contained a collection of memos that documented unconfirmed, intimate details about Trump's life, including claims that Trump cooperated with Russia in operations that targeted Trump's political opponents.
US intelligence agents prepared a two-page summary of the dossier's contents. Trump as recently as Wednesday morning refused to acknowledge whether he saw the document during an intelligence briefing he was given on Russian cyberattacks on Friday. Trump surrogate, Kellyanne Conway, sparred with CNN's Anderson Cooper Wednesday over the same argument.
Seeming to refer to Tuesday reports from CNN and BuzzFeed about the dossier, Clapper said he was "dismayed" that leaks have been published by the press. Clapper said he talked to Trump on Wednesday and both agreed the leaks were "corrosive and damaging to our national security."