Donald Trump news conference: US President-elect attacks 'sick people' he blames for Russian dossier

Donald Trump says unverified claims are blot on intelligence agencies

Donald Trump has rejected reports Moscow has compiled a dossier of compromising information about his activities in and links to the Russian state.

Here are the latest updates:

• Trump says he is a 'germaphobe' in apparent response to dossier sex allegations
• Trump says he is 'completely isolating' himself from business empire
• 'If Putin likes me, it's an asset'
• Trump attacks the 'sick' people who put 'c**p' intelligence dossier together
• Unofficial and unverified report into Trump's alleged Russian links included in official security briefing
• Trump calls allegations fake news and a political witch-hunt
• Scanned copy of former British spy's unverified report published by BuzzFeed
• Trump holds his first new conference as President-elect

With just nine days to go until his inauguration, Donald Trump has again found himself at the centre of a scandal involving alleged links to the Russian state.

A classified briefing on Russian hacking, given to both President Barack Obama and the President-elect, included allegations that Mr Trump or his surrogates had direct contact with the Kremlin before and during the 2016 election campaign.

And the report also details "perverted sexual acts" involving prostitutes alleged to have taken place in a hotel room in Moscow. The suggestion is that the claims could have been used by Russia to compromise the incoming US President.

Mr Trump has strenuously denied the unverified allegations, which came in a two-page synopsis attached to a classified intelligence report into Russian interference in the US election. A declassified version was distributed publicly last week.

Intelligence officials said they could not independently verify the embarrassing claims, compiled by a former British spy who was hired by Mr Trump’s political opponents.

The Kremlin dismissed the report as "fake" and "total bluff" in a statement on Wednesday morning, saying it had no "compromising information" on either Mr Trump or his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton. On Tuesday night, Mr Trump's political advisor Kellyanne Conway also dismissed the claims as coming from "unnamed, unspoken sources."

[11 January 2017 15:05 · Stuart Henderson]

Having been interrupted by protesters - like Jeff Sessions before him yesterday - Mr Tillerson has said that "American leadership must not only be renewed, it must be asserted"

He adds: "We are the only superpower with the means and the moral compass capable of shaping the world for good".

[11 January 2017 15:09 · Stuart Henderson]

Seemingly backing Mr Trump's line during the presidential campaign that he would "bomb the s***" out of Isis, Mr Tillerson says that the top priority for the US in the Middle East will be "defeating" the terror group.

[11 January 2017 15:17 · Stuart Henderson]

During his election campaign, Donald Trump told ABC News that Vladimir Putin would not be "going into Ukraine"  and was mocked for having to row back on those comments when it was pointed out that Russia had been involved in the conflict in the country for around two years.

However, Mr Tillerson says that Russia "took territory that was not theirs" when seizing control of Crimea - officially part of Ukraine - in 2014.

[11 January 2017 15:21 · Stuart Henderson]

Mr Tillerson also says that Russia had "invaded" Ukraine and that allies were "right to raise the alarm" about Russia. Such a statement will be seen as support for US commitments to the Nato alliance in Eastern Europe.

Mr Tillerson adds that Russia "poses a danger, but is not unpredictable in advancing its own interests".

[11 January 2017 15:22 · Stuart Henderson]

Mr Tillerson - perhaps warming to this theme - says that the US should have responded to the capture of Crimea by Russia with a "proportional show of force".

[11 January 2017 15:26 · Stuart Henderson]

Moving onto the issue of climate change - another thorny issue for Mr Trump - Mr Tillerson says the "threats" of climate change "require a global response"

[11 January 2017 15:31 · Stuart Henderson]

Having seemingly, at least partially, gone against what Mr Trump has previously said about Ukraine and climate change Senator Marco Rubio turns attention to the issue of allegations of Russian hacking during the presidential election. 

Mr Rubio asks Tilleron whether he thoughts the reports were accurate. Mr Tillerson says that he found the inter-agency intelligence reports on the matter "troubling". Quite a marked difference to Mr Trump's response.

When pressed, Mr Tillerson says it is a "fair assumption" that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed the hacking  

[11 January 2017 15:33 · Stuart Henderson]

Senator Rubio, who has been grilling Mr Tillerson pretty hard, asks him if Mr Putin should be considered a war criminal

Mr Tillerson said he "would not use that language".

[11 January 2017 15:36 · Stuart Henderson]

Breaking off from the confirmation hearing a moment: The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says allegations that Russia has collected damaging personal and financial information on Donald Trump “shakes our democracy to its very core” and should be investigated by Congress. 

In a brief interview, New York Rep. Eliot Engel says if the unsubstantiated charges that the Russians have compromising material on the President-elect are true, “It's a scary thing to have Putin in the driver's seat.” 

Mr Trump and a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin have denied the allegations. 

A reminder that the press conference by Mr Trump is due to begin in about 30 minutes.

[11 January 2017 15:40 · Stuart Henderson]

Marco Rubio asked Mr Tillerson if he would advise Mr. Trump to reverse sanctions the US has imposed on Russia for its apparent cyber attacks. 

“If confirmed, senator, I would want to examine it, all aspects of it,” Mr Tillerson says.