News / Politics

‘Compromising’ information on Trump in Russia’s hands

Tuesday, 10 January 2017 11:32 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 11 January 2017 12:01 AM ]

United States President-elect Donald Trump

Russia is in possession of "compromising" personal and financial information about United States President-elect Donald Trump, top intelligence officials told him last week.

US President Barack Obama had been briefed over the matter on Thursday, one day before Trump, CNN reported Tuesday, citing multiple unnamed officials with direct knowledge of the matter.

The intelligence was apparently dug up by a former British MI-6 operative, tasked by an unnamed Trump opponent, with doing political "opposition research" in mid-2016.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had also been notified of the matter in August, around two months before Election Day, which gave the New York billionaire and former reality TV star control over the White House.

CNN, meanwhile, suggested that the information, whose details are still unknown, had been kept in the dark over suspicion about its credibility.

"What has changed since then is that US intelligence agencies have now checked out the former British intelligence operative and his vast network throughout Europe and find him and his sources to be credible enough to include some of the information in the presentations" to Trump, CNN said.

Since he started campaigning for the 2016 presidential election, Trump has, on several occasions, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and called for good ties with the longtime enemy.

Rumors that Moscow may be in possession of game-changing information about Trump gained momentum around a week before the 2016 election when Harry Reid, the former Democratic leader in the Senate wrote a letter to FBI Director James Comey.

"It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government -- a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity. The public has a right to know this information."

In the run-up to the 2016 vote, WikiLeaks kept releasing batches of emails from the campaign of Trump’s opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, as well as the Democratic National Committee.

Democrats pointed the finger at Russia, an allegation later confirmed by the US intelligence community, and dismissed by Moscow as well as the transparency organization.

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