A top U.S. intelligence official has told President-elect Donald Trump that U.S. intelligence agencies did not write or leak a document alleging that Russian operatives have "compromising information" on him.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he spoke with Trump on January 11 after news broke that Trump received an intelligence briefing last week that included an unsubstantiated account of a Russian intelligence operative who allegedly obtained potentially embarrassing personal and financial information about Trump.
"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 [community]," Clapper said, adding that the leaks were "corrosive and damaging to national security."
Moreover, he said, intelligence agencies had not sanctioned the account as "reliable."
According to the Associated Press, the dossier contains unproven information about close coordination between Trump's inner circle and Russians about hacking into Democratic accounts as well as unproven claims about unusual sexual activities by Trump, among other suggestions attributed to anonymous sources.
Trump was enraged by media reports about the dossier and called them "fake news." He also accused intelligence agencies of leaking the document.
