Russian government officials discussed 'derogatory' information about Donald Trump and aides during 2016 election
The White House has dismissed the report
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A new report claims that Russia government officials discussed having potentially “derogatory” about presidential candidate Donald Trump and some of his top aides. The Russians apparently believed the information they possessed gave them “the ability to influence the administration”.
The conversations among the Russian officials were reportedly intercepted by the US intelligence services. Details of the the conversations were then passed to CNN.
The network said one source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussion centred on whether the Russians had leverage over Mr Trump's inner circle. It said the source said the intercepted communications suggested to US intelligence that the Russians believed “they had the ability to influence the administration through the derogatory information”.
However, the sources also acknowledged that the Russian claims to one another “could have been exaggerated or even made up” as part of a disinformation campaign that the Russians did during the election.
“The Russians could be overstating their belief to influence,” said one source.
The latest revelations comes as former FBI Director Robert Mueller is heading a federal investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow’s alleged effort to influence the 2016 election.
Mr Trump has repeatedly denied there was any such collusion and has denounced such claims and leaks as fake news.
A White House spokesman told CNN: “This is yet another round of false and unverified claims made by anonymous sources to smear the President. The reality is, a review of the President’s income from the last ten years showed he had virtually no financial ties at all.
“There appears to be no limit to which the President's political opponents will go to perpetuate this false narrative, including illegally leaking classified material. All this does is play into the hands of our adversaries and put our country at risk.”
Earlier this year, it was reported that intelligence officials had briefed both Mr Trump and Barack Obama on details of dossier of information about the New York tycoon that was initially put together by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent who had been paid to collect dirt on Mr Trump by his political rivals. Journalists who examined the dossier said they were unable to corroborate it.
Mr Trump repeatedly dismissed the claims.
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