Donald Trump says spy chief ‘denounced’ dossier as Russia claims its author is ‘still working’ as a spy
RUSSIA has claimed the former spy reportedly behind an explosive, lurid dossier on Donald Trump may still be working as a spy for British intelligence.
RUSSIA has claimed the former spy reportedly responsible for an explosive dossier on Donald Trump may still be working for British intelligence.
Christopher Steele has apparently gone into hiding after being identified as the author of the report claiming Moscow held incriminating material on the US president-elect which it could use to blackmail him.
The former spy - who runs the London-based Orbis Business Intelligence Service - is said to have originally compiled the report for political opponents of Trump in Washington.
A posting on the official Twitter feed of the Russian embassy in London said officers of British intelligence service MI6 were “never ex”.
Posted over a picture showing three question marks, it said the dossier, which claimed Trump’s staff were in contact with Moscow in the run-up to the US presidential election, was “briefing both ways” - against Russia and the president-elect.
Earlier Downing Street refused to be drawn on whether the UK government had offered any assistance to Mr Steele, who was reported to be in fear for his life after being named in US media reports.
Christopher Steele story: MI6 officers are never ex: briefing both ways - against Russia and US President pic.twitter.com/tJwLtLZs24
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) January 12, 2017
It says there is a “standard process” for supporting current and former holders of sensitive government posts whose identities became public.
A furious Trump on Wednesday denounced the claims in the dossier as “fake news” during a tumultuous press conference in New York.
He accused US intelligence agencies of behaving “like Nazis” over the leak of the dossier after details were included in classified briefings to the president-elect and to President Barack Obama.
The US director of national intelligence James Clapper later said he had assured Trump the leak did not come from the intelligence community.
James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated. Made up, phony facts.Too bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2017
There was no sign of Steele at his home, where neighbours said he had been living with his wife and four children for 18 months.
Neighbour Mike Hopper said Mr Steele left on Wednesday.
“He did not say where he was going or when he was coming back,” he said.
TRUMP DOSSIER ‘AUTHOR’ WELL RESPECTED
Those who said they knew him said he is well regarded in espionage circles.
“I do know these guys and they have a good reputation. There’s no way they would have made up the dossier,” a source close to the British intelligence services told AFP.
The Guardian said Steele was “one of the more eminent Russia specialists” at MI6, adding that he spent two years in Moscow in the early 1990s.
The Daily Telegraph said he had worked under diplomatic cover at the British embassy in Moscow.
“The idea his work is fake or a cowboy operation is false, completely untrue. Chris is an experienced and highly regarded professional,” the Guardian quoted a former Foreign Office official and friend of Steele’s as saying.
“He’s not the sort of person who will simply pass on gossip. If he puts something in a report, he believes there’s sufficient credibility in it for it to be worth considering.
“Chris is a very straight guy. He could not have survived in the job he was in if he had been prone to flights of fancy or doing things in an ill-considered way.” A former intelligence officer now working in the private sector told AFP that a Russian sub-contractor may have been partly behind the dossier.
Near Steele’s red-brick home in a sleepy village outside London, neighbour Mike Hopper told AFP he had left on Wednesday and asked him to feed the family’s three cats while he was away.
No car could be seen on the gravel yard in front of the home of Steele, reported by the Daily Telegraph and Wall Street Journal to be a former officer for Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service.
The gate outside was also locked shut.
“I’ve not seen any of the family since yesterday,” Hopper said, adding: “It’s not the sort of thing you expect to hear, international news of importance like that in an area like this.” “I had no inkling whatsoever,” he said.
The Telegraph quoted a source close to Steele saying he was “horrified” when his nationality was published on Wednesday, prior to his naming in US media.
The source said Steele was now “terrified for his and his family’s safety” after the publication of the dossier, which said Russia had plotted to build ties with Trump and had lurid sex footage involving him.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said no judgment had been made about claims in the dossier.
Mr Clapper said in a statement that he emphasised “that this document is not a US Intelligence Community product and that I do not believe the leaks came from within the IC. 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,” he said.
Mr Clapper said that the dossier had been “widely circulated in recent months among the media, members of Congress and Congressional staff even before the IC became aware of it.”
BuzzFeed decided to publish the dossier, while CNN partly reported on its contents.
The dossier in question claims that Russia has compromising information on Mr Trump, including a variety of sexual and financial allegations.
The 35-page report alleges longstanding communications between Russian officials and Trump’s Republican campaign, and that Russian intelligence holds salacious videos involving Trump and prostitutes in Russia.
None of the allegations have been substantiated, but they were considered serious enough for US intelligence to investigate them and include its own conclusions in a top secret briefing to Trump last Friday on Russia’s meddling in the US election, including the hacking of Democratic Party computers.
TRUMP READY TO GO TILL 2020
Trump hasn’t yet been sworn into office, but he’s already looking ahead to 2020.
Trump’s team announced Thursday that he’ll be keeping alive his presidential campaign committee, Donald J. Trump for President Inc.
Trump’s former deputy campaign manager, Michael Glassner, will lead the group, along with Arizona deputy treasurer Sean Dollman and John Pence. The latter is Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s nephew.
The group will focus on fundraising and building data for Trump’s possible re- election in 2020 and will coordinate closely with the Republican National Committee.
Staff will continue working from New York’s Trump Tower, where his campaign was based.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump will come to appreciate US intelligence work once he’s more familiar with it. Ryan said: “I think as he gets to know our intelligence community better, I think he’ll learn to appreciate all the great work they do.”
FIRST LADY OFFICE TO CHANGE UNDER TRUMP
The Trump administration will likely rename the Office of the First Lady as the Office of the First Family, sources told CNN last month.
Mr Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, is expected to play an active role in her father’s administration, including advising him on issues ranging from climate change to family leave.
Sources say Melania Trump, Mr Trump’s wife, will perform some of the duties traditionally assigned to the First Lady.
The Slovenian immigrant and former model was overshadowed by her stepdaughter during the election campaign. She will live in New York with her son Barron, 10, in the first few months of Mr Trump’s presidency.
RUDY GIULIANI TO HELP ON CYBERSECURITY
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said he’s helping organise a group of private sector cybersecurity experts who will meet with the incoming Trump administration about the issue.
“The idea here is to bring together corporate leaders and their technological people,” Mr. Giuliani said on Fox & Friends. “(The) president will meet with them on an ongoing basis, as well as anybody else in the administration.”
“I’ll co-ordinate the whole thing. I’ll get the people in, make sure the meeting takes place, make sure they get the information from the private sector,” he said.
Mr Giuliani, a top supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, works in cybersecurity in the private sector.
“The president-elect decided that he wanted to bring in, on a regular basis, the people in the private sector — corporate leaders in particular and thought leaders in the private sector who are working on security for cyber because we’re so far behind,” he said.
TRUMP SLAMS CNN —AGAIN
Mr Trump also continued his fight with CNN on Twitter a day after refusing to take questions from the media organisation’s Jim Acosta and calling them “fake news.”
“@CNN is in a total meltdown with their FAKE NEWS because their ratings are tanking since the election and their credibility will soon be gone!” he wrote.
CNN has released a statement defending its reporting.
.@CNN is in a total meltdown with their FAKE NEWS because their ratings are tanking since election and their credibility will soon be gone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2017
“CNN’s decision to publish carefully sourced reporting about the operations of our government is vastly different than Buzzfeed’s decision to publish unsubstantiated memos. The Trump team knows this. They are using Buzzfeed’s decision to deflect from CNN’s reporting, which has been matched by the other major news organisations,” the network said. “We are fully confident in our reporting. It represents the core of what the First Amendment protects, informing the people of the inner workings of their government; in this case, briefing materials prepared for President Obama and President-elect Trump last week.
“We made it clear that we were not publishing any of the details of the 35-page document because we have not corroborated the report’s allegations. Given that members of the Trump transition team have so vocally criticised our reporting, we encourage them to identify, specifically, what they believe to be inaccurate,” the statement said.
CNN received an unlikely ally in rival Fox News, with anchor Shepard Smith saying the network’s reporting met journalistic standards and that the network condemned the president-elect bullying journalists.
Here’s what Shep had to say about @realDonaldTrump 's criticism of the media #TrumpPressConference pic.twitter.com/92umEbMjD3
— Shepard Smith (@ShepNewsTeam) January 11, 2017
Teen’s calm act after mum shot dead in face
A court has been shown dramatic footage from inside the home moments after the then 14-year-old allegedly killed her mother.
‘Gibberish’: Trump’s answer baffles viewers
Asked a simple question, by a friendly voter, Donald Trump embarked on an eight-minute rant. It demonstrates a real problem in the media’s coverage of him.
‘Human’: Melania on her naked pictures
The former first lady said she stands “proudly behind” the images, and accused “the media” of scrutinising her “celebration of the human form”.