US Intelligence Has Had This Information for Months
CNN has just reported that during intelligence briefings last week both President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump were shown classified documents that show Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information on Donald Trump. CNN cites “multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings” as their sources, and reports the source of the claim is “a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible.”
The CNN report also states that included in the classified documents are “allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials.”
“The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump,” CNN notes. “The classified briefings last week were presented by four of the senior-most US intelligence chiefs — Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers.”
CNN notes that intelligence chiefs used the information, that Russia potentially has compromising information on Trump, substantiate their report on Russian hacking, to prove that Russia did so to harm Hillary Clinton and to help Trump’s candidacy, as it was not released publicly.
To be clear, the CNN report does not state that Russia has compromising information on Trump, but that sources say Russia says it does.
The allegations against Trump are reportedly the same that led Senator Harry Reid to pen a letter to FBI Director James Comey in October, stating, “you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government — a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States.”
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