The U.S. intelligence community has not authenticated the 35-page dossier circulating on the Internet purporting to contain damaging information on President-elect Donald Trump, the director of national intelligence said in a statement Wednesday night.
James R. Clapper, the director, said he spoke with Mr. Trump earlier in the evening and assured him the document was not produced by his agencies, nor have they deemed the information reliable.
He did, however, seem to confirm that Mr. Trump was briefed on the existence of the document last week — which would corroborate at least part of a CNN report.
“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. However, part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security,” Mr. Clapper said.
He also said he “expressed my profound dismay” to Mr. Trump about the leaks that enabled the reporting.
“We both agreed that they are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security,” Mr. Clapper’s statement said about his conversation with Mr. Trump.
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The 35-page document, apparently compiled by a former British intelligence operative, has circulated for months in the U.S., including among several members of Congress, before intelligence analysts even learned of it.
It contains salacious details about Mr. Trump, and says Russian intelligence officials believe they have information that would compromise the president-elect.
The dossier was published online by Buzzfeed this week, while a CNN report referred to the document without publishing it or describing its more-salacious details. CNN reported that intelligence officials briefed Mr. Trump on the existence of a document, as part of a broader session on Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
At a press conference Wednesday, Mr. Trump blasted CNN and Buzzfeed for their reports, calling them “fake news.”
He also said the fact that information about his briefing leaked was troubling, and said it would be a “blot” on the intelligence community if it had come from them.
Mr. Clapper insisted in his statement that he didn’t think his people were responsible for the leak.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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