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Turning point in Trump's relationship with intel community? |
Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he and President Barack
Obama were informed about the unverified allegations about
President-elect Donald Trump by intelligence officials.
Biden said in an interview with the Associated Press
that neither he nor Obama asked U.S. intelligence agencies to try to
corroborate the unverified claims that Russia had obtained compromising
sexual and financial allegations about Trump.
"I think it's something that obviously the agency
thinks they have to track down," Biden said. He added later, "It
surprised me in that it made it to the point where the agency, the FBI
thought they had to pursue it."
Biden added that the briefing he and Obama received
from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and others, there
were “no conclusions drawn” from the leaked dossier, which was produced
in August and then released publicly this week by the media. Biden said
it was "totally ancillary" to the purpose of the meeting, which was to
brief Obama on a report he ordered documenting Russian interference in
the U.S. campaign.
"As a matter of fact, the president was like, 'What
does this have anything to do with anything?'" Biden said. He said
intelligence leaders responded by saying "Well, we feel obliged to tell
you, Mr. President, because you may hear about it. We're going to tell
him," referring to Trump.
Biden said intelligence leaders told him and Obama
that they couldn't say whether or not the allegations were true or
untrue. He said there was "hardly any discussion" about the allegations
in the briefing.
"Neither the president nor I asked for any detail," Biden said. But he added of the dossier: "I've read everything."
Trump confirmed earlier Thursday that Clapper spoke
to him by phone, apparently sometime after a press conference in which
Trump lashed out at media outlets, including Buzzfeed and CNN, that ran
the story and speculated it was leaked by federal officials.
"James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the
false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated," Trump
tweeted. "Made up, phony facts. Too bad!"
On Wednesday, Clapper released a rare statement
addressing rising tensions between spy agency chiefs and Trump, who
believes the intel community has become politicized and is working to
undermine him. He also acknowledged contacting Trump directly to express
"profound dismay" about the leaks to CNN and Buzzfeed — the latter of
which published the unverified allegations in full.
"I emphasized that this document is not a U.S.
Intelligence Community product and that I do not believe the leaks came
from within the IC," Clapper said. "The IC has not made any judgment
that the information in this document is reliable, and we did not rely
upon it in any way for our conclusions."
Several media outlets reported that the salacious
material, originally compiled by a former British intelligence officer
turned political consultant, was relayed to Trump when he was briefed on
the intelligence community's evidence of Russian hacking in the 2016
election.
But Trump never received any summary of
unsubstantiated allegations that Russian spies had collected
compromising financial and personal information about him, a highly
placed transition source told Fox News Wednesday.
The source said that intelligence officials who
briefed Trump on Friday brought up the allegations verbally, but added
that they were "barely mentioned in passing."
A government source told Fox News that the
intelligence community wanted to give Trump a heads-up that the
allegations had been widely circulating and that a lot of media outlets
were sitting on the story. The source said the claims did not constitute
a "central element" of Trump's briefing.
CNN initially reported that Trump and President Obama
were presented with a two-page summary that detailed the allegations.
The report said the summary was attached to a broader report about
Russian operatives' activities during the 2016 election.
At the Wednesday press conference, Trump said that he
had learned details of the allegations "outside of the meeting" with
intelligence officials.
"It's all fake news. It's phony stuff. It didn't
happen," Trump said, later adding. "But I read what was released and I
think it's a disgrace. I think it's an absolute disgrace."