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 18:05 · Stuart Henderson]

Well, looks like that news conference has not gone down well with everyone. 

Democratic representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland releases a statement vowing action to shed light on Trump’s potential conflicts of interest, after Mr Trump decided not to divest from the Trump Organisation.

“Congress must [obtain] all corporate and legal documents relating to the President-elect’s global entanglements and business dealings, including the tax returns he promised to produce to the American people,” the statement says.

[11 January 2017 18:14 · Stuart Henderson]

A couple of very interesting pieces to read on today's events:

First Rupert Cornwell on what it all means for Mr Trump's presidency -

[11 January 2017 18:15 · Stuart Henderson]

And then Kim Sengupta on the dossier that Trump has labelled "Fake news":

[11 January 2017 18:31 · Stuart Henderson]

One thing that that we missed in the round-up of Mr Trumps's news conference was his thoughts on Mexico and 'the wall'.

Mr Trump said he'll begin negotiations with Mexico on funding his promised wall along the southern border immediately after he takes office. 

Mr Trump's team and Republicans in Congress have been discussing a plan in which American taxpayers would initially cover the costs of the wall. 

Mr Trump said that's because he wants to get it started fast. He added: “Mexico will pay for the wall, but it will be reimbursed.” 

[11 January 2017 18:50 · Stuart Henderson]

Back at Rex Tillerson's confirmation hearing, the US Secretary of State nominee say he would recommend a "full review" of the nuclear deal with Iran, but he did not call for an outright rejection of the 2015 accord.