On Wednesday, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, strongly denied the claims that the U.S. intelligence community leaked information from a classified briefing with Donald Trump. Information about an unverified memo was published online by BuzzFeed which claimed that the Russian government had been assisting the President-elect over the past five years. Clapper assured the President-elect that the intelligence community stands beside him and that he can trust their loyalty. The two spoke on the phone Wednesday night.
“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, speaking of the intelligence community. “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.”
The two page summary of the claims that Russia had been working to assist Trump for the past half of a decade was attached to intelligence briefing papers for both President Obama and President-elect Trump.
During a press conference at Trump Tower in New York on Wednesday, President-elect Trump said the claims were a “complete fabrication” and made the allegation that spies within the United States leaked allegations that Russia had compromising information on him. Clapper firmly denied that claim, stating that he was “profoundly dismayed” by the leak.
During the Wednesday press conference, President-elect Trump also called BuzzFeed, the publication that published the unverified information as “a failing pile of garbage.”
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