Trump condemns leaks alleging Russia has compromising info about him

US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday furiously denied explosive claims that Russian intelligence has gathered compromising personal and professional information on him.

 

“Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” he said on Twitter, reacting to unsubstantiated allegations in reports circulating in US media.

 

“Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?” he said.

 

His tweets came hours before he was scheduled to hold a news conference in New York, his first in nearly six months.

 

Even before the allegations surfaced widely in US media on Tuesday, reporters had been expected to grill the billionaire Republican over his ties to Russia after the US intelligence community concluded Moscow interfered in the November election to tip the race in Trump’s favor.

Intelligence chiefs last week presented America’s incoming 45th president, as well as current President Barack Obama, with a two-page synopsis on the potentially embarrassing information in Russian hands, according to CNN and The New York Times, who cited multiple unnamed US officials with direct knowledge of the meeting.

 

Russia denied the claims, with President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling journalists: “The Kremlin does not have compromising information on Trump.”