An uncorroborated memo that has been circulating for months around news organizations, lawmakers, and US government officials–one alleging dealings between President-Elect Donald Trump and the Russian government–has sparked a full-blown clash between the incoming administration and US spies and journalists.
Trump on Wednesday convened his first press conference since July. Although the focus of the back-and-forth with reporters was supposed to be on Trump’s plans to resolve his conflicts of interest, CNN and BuzzFeed reporting on the memo became the focus of the proceedings.
“BuzzFeed is a failing pile of garbage,” Trump said. He also accused CNN of being “fake news,” and prevented the network’s reporter Jim Acosta from asking a question.
On Tuesday, CNN published a story based on anonymous government sources charging that US intel officials briefed Trump that the Russian government had collected compromising information on him. Shortly after, BuzzFeed published, in full, a 35-page memo from which those briefing materials were derived.
That memo had been making the rounds among government officials and journalists since last summer. It was reportedly compiled by a former British intelligence official who was paid to do opposition research on Trump by both Republican and Democratic campaigns.
The dossier included unverified claims that Russian agents have graphic blackmail material depicting Trump in sexual acts while visiting Moscow. It further alleged that members of Trump’s campaign had secret meetings with Russian government officials before the election.
The New York Times described the memo as “opposition research,” which contained “claims that neither intelligence agencies nor The Times have been able to verify.”
CNN’s story was contradicted by NBC News on Wednesday, which reported that intel officials did not actually brief Trump about the memo. Instead, a two-page summary of the memo was included in the material for briefers, but was never presented to the President-Elect.
A senior official also told NBC News that the material was provided, the news organization said, to “provide context, should they need it, to draw the distinction for Trump between analyzed intelligence and unvetted ‘disinformation.’”
In addition to lashing out at media outlets on Wednesday, Trump also blamed the intelligence community for leaking information he described as “phony” and put together by “sick people.”
“I think it was disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out,” he said.
The President-elect stood by his tweets earlier in the day accusing intel officials of taking a shot at him, and likening their behavior to something seen in “Nazi Germany.”
Trump also seemed to toss aside some of his stated doubts of the conclusions from US spies that the Kremlin was behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee.
“As far as hacking, I think it was Russian,” Trump said, before quickly stating that other countries, including China, are also involved in cyber operations against the US.
Halfway through Wednesday’s briefing, Trump gave the stage to attorney Sheri Dillon, from the law firm Morgan Lewis, to lay out how the President-elect plans to handle his business interests while in the White House—the initial focus of the press briefing.
She claimed that the Trump Organization’s holding would be placed into a trust, and that Trump was handing “complete and total control” of it to his two sons, Eric and Donald Jr.
Dillon added that Trump would “have no role in deciding whether the Trump Organization engages in a new deal.” In addition, an “ethics advisor” would keep watch over the arrangement and review any new business deals.
The constitutionality of the arrangement is still murky, but it’s unlikely to satisfy government ethics watchdogs that have called on Trump to fully divest, instead of just handing control of his businesses over to family members.
Trump admitted he hopes to return to running his business after he leaves office.
“I hope at the end of 8 years, I’ll come back and I’ll say, ‘Oh you did a good job.’ Otherwise, if they do a bad job, I’ll say, ‘You’re fired.’”
The setting of Wednesday’s press briefing was unconventional. Crowds supportive of Trump were on hand, and could be heard cheering on Trump and, at times, shouting down reporters trying to ask questions.
