On Wednesday morning, President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter to defend himself from a rough but unsubstantiated report that included unverified accusations about his ties to Russia.
“Russia just said the unverified report paid for by political opponents is ‘A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE.’ Very unfair!” Trump tweeted, referencing recent remarks made by a Kremlin spokesman.
“Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!”
Russia just said the unverified report paid for by political opponents is “A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE.” Very unfair!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017
Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017
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?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017
He went on to claim that the dossier was “FAKE NEWS” and complained that intelligence agencies should not have allowed the report to go public.
“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 wrote.
As for the report itself, the dossier was published by BuzzFeed News on Tuesday and was said to be based on reports from a British intelligence officer, who claimed, among other things, that Putin had been “cultivating” a relationship with Trump for five years and that Trump had hired prostitutes in Russia for “perverted” sex acts.
When they published the dossier, BuzzFeed noted that it was unsubstantiated and that the report had several factual errors.