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What we know about the sexual allegations made against Donald Trump

<p>Most Americans want Donald Trump to release his tax returns, but he doesn't get that.</p><p>"The only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters, OK?" Trump said in a press conference Wednesday. "I mean, I became president. No, I don't think they [the public] care at all."</p><p><b>SEE MORE: <a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/donald-trump-s-conflicts-of-interest-are-unprecedented/">Donald Trump's Conflicts Of Interest Are Unprecedented</a></b></p><p><a href="http://www.people-press.org/2017/01/10/negative-views-of-trumps-transition-amid-concerns-about-conflicts-tax-returns/" target="_blank">A new Pew Research Center study</a> shows the public does care about his tax returns. </p><p>Every president in the modern era has given this transparency, except Trump.</p><p>And that means the public doesn't know much about how and where he makes money.</p><hr><b>Trending stories at <a href="http://www.newsy.com">Newsy.com</a></b><ul class="inline-related-links"><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/rubio-grills-trump-pick-tillerson-on-russian-war-crimes/">Rubio Grills Trump's Secretary Of State Pick On Russian 'War Crimes'</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/donald-trump-taps-david-shulkin-for-va-secretary/">Trump Picks David Shulkin To Head The Department Of Veterans Affairs</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/obama-s-farewell-address-in-chicago-draws-thousands/">Thousands Of Obama Supporters Give 44th President A Chi-Town Send-Off</a></li></ul>
<p><b>KATE GRUMKE</b>: Hey, everyone. I'm Kate Grumke. </p><p><b>EUGENE DANIELS</b>: And I'm Eugene Daniels. </p><p><b>GRUMKE</b>: So, this has been a really eventful week when it comes to intelligence. So we decided to sit down and just give a wrap up. So let's start with the beginning of the week with a Trump tweet. <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/816452807024840704" target="_blank">He tweeted</a> on Jan. 3, "The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!"</p><p><b>SEE MORE: <a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/trump-taps-dan-coats-for-director-of-national-intelligence/">Trump's Reported Intelligence Director Pick Isn't Welcome In Russia</a></b></p><p><b>GRUMKE</b>: So I think people were kind of offended by the intelligence — the quotes around the word "intelligence" — and saw that as a dig at our intelligence community.</p><p><b>GRUMKE</b>: Now, to be fair, there are other critics. It's not just Donald Trump that is worried that it's not actually Russia and we haven't found conclusive evidence. But to also be fair, all 17 of the U.S.'s intelligence agencies say that it was Russia that was behind the hacking of the DNC.</p><p><b>DANIELS</b>: And they're all in agreement. What's really interesting is it's pretty unprecedented for an incoming president or president-elect to be at war. I hate that word, but that's kind of what it is — a battle with the intelligence community that he's going to be in charge of in just days, in a couple of weeks. I don't think we've ever seen this — at least, not so publicly.</p><p><b>GRUMKE</b>: Then on the other hand, we know what happened with Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. So it's not necessarily that this has never happened that the intelligence community was wrong, but they are pretty positive about this hack.</p><p><b>GRUMKE</b>: So on Thursday, there was the Senate hearing, which it was the Armed Services Committee.</p><p><b>DANIELS</b>: The NSA, FBI and CIA and James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, gave a briefing with a lot of information <a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf" target="_blank">from this report</a>.</p><p><b>DANIELS</b>: But I think the thing that's the most explosive, if you want to use that word, is that President Vladimir Putin <a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/report-putin-ordered-campaign-to-influence-us-election/" target="_blank">ordered an influence campaign</a> and that it was a multifaceted campaign, that it was aimed to hurt Hillary Clinton.</p><p><b>GRUMKE</b>: I think that out of the committee hearing, some of the other stuff that was really interesting to me was John McCain was asking, "Is this potentially an act of war?" And I think that took it to a much higher step as far as the seriousness of this.</p><p><b>SEE MORE: <a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/trump-says-he-s-committed-to-mending-us-russia-ties/">Like The Presidents Before Him, Trump Wants To Improve Russian Ties</a></b></p><p><b>DANIELS</b>: To be clear, the report also says, "We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome."</p><p><b>GRUMKE</b>: And that's a really important point to make. So they're not saying that Russia hacked into any voting machines or changed vote totals or anything like that. Donald Trump won the election, fair and square. They're saying that Russia was attempting to meddle with the U.S. democracy.</p><p><b>DANIELS</b>: If you're the Trump campaign or the Trump transition team, you want to make that really clear, right? Because this could be used by Trump opponents by trying to undermine his presidency. He won, fair and square. Whether the disinformation worked, that's something completely different. The way I've heard it put by some really smart people is not that they hacked the election, but that they hacked the voters, which is a really interesting way to look at it.</p><p><b>GRUMKE</b>: Paul Ryan released a statement Friday, as well, saying Russia clearly tried to meddle in our political system. So I think we're going to continue to see this where Donald Trump obviously doesn't want to say that exactly happened because that would affect whatever mandate he might have through this election. But we're definitely seeing John McCain and Paul Ryan coming out really strongly against Russia.</p><hr><b>Trending stories at <a href="http://www.newsy.com">Newsy.com</a></b><ul class="inline-related-links"><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/the-confirmation-process-for-presidential-cabinet-nominees/">Paperwork To Hearings: What It Takes To Confirm A Presidential Nominee</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/donald-trump-s-conflicts-of-interest-are-unprecedented/">Donald Trump's Conflicts Of Interest Are Unprecedented</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/florida-s-stand-your-ground-law-linked-to-rise-in-violence/">Study Links Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' Law To Rise In Violence</a></li></ul>
<p>Donald Trump refused to call on <a href="http://www.cnn.com/profiles/jim-acosta-profile" target="_blank">CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta</a> during a press conference Wednesday.</p><p>"Don't be rude," Trump said. "No, I'm not going to give you a question. I'm not going to give you a question. You are fake news. Go ahead."</p><p>Just hours before the presser, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/" target="_blank">CNN came under fire</a> for publishing unverified reports that allege Russia may have compromising information on Trump.</p><p><b>SEE MORE: <a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/cnn-russia-may-have-compromising-info-on-trump/">CNN: US Investigating Whether Russia Has 'Compromising' Info On Trump</a></b></p><p><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.iizzJx9A5#.tp60aoO92" target="_blank">Buzzfeed also faced criticism for publishing a 35-page document</a> containing unverified and false reports about Russian intel on Trump.</p><p>"As far as Buzzfeed, which is a failing pile of garbage, I think they're going to suffer the consequences," Trump said.</p><hr><b>Trending stories at <a href="http://www.newsy.com">Newsy.com</a></b><ul class="inline-related-links"><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/most-americans-want-donald-trump-to-release-his-tax-returns/">Donald Trump Falsely Says Most Americans Don't Want To See Tax Returns</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/rubio-grills-trump-pick-tillerson-on-russian-war-crimes/">Rubio Grills Trump's Secretary Of State Pick On Russian 'War Crimes'</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/donald-trump-taps-david-shulkin-for-va-secretary/">Trump Picks David Shulkin To Head The Department Of Veterans Affairs</a></li></ul>
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On Tuesday night, Buzzfeed released a bombshell report allegedly written by a British spy, alleging Russia was in possession of compromising videotape of President-elect Donald Trump engaged in stange sexual acts, and that Trump’s aids had a direct line to Russian officials throughout the 2016 campaign.

Trump quickly responded, denouncing Buzzfeed’s report as “fake news.” Hours later, during a Wednesday press conference, Trump referred to the website as a “failing piece of trash.”

So, is the report that Buzzfeed published true? Is Trump right to label it “fake news?” Here’s what we know so far.

CNN’s Initial Report

On Tuesday afternoon, CNN reported that during an intelligence briefing last week, Trump received a number classified documents from FBI, CIA and NSA.The documents contained unverified reports that Russia was in possession of material compromising to Trump, and that the Trump campaign may have been in contact with Russian officials during the election.

While the information in the dossier had not been verified by any intelligence agencies, it came from a former British intelligence operative whose work the US has deemed credible. CNN reported that the FBI is currently investigating claims made in the document.

CNN did not share specifics from the classified documents, but mentioned that they had been circulating since “last summer.” In fact, left-leaning news site Mother Jones spoke to the British intelligence officer in October and published its own story about Trump’s ties to Russia.

CNN's report is also consistent with the reports that the intelligence community is concerned that Russia had released an "influence campaign" in order to have Donald Trump elected over Hillary Clinton.

Trump attacked CNN during a press conference on Wednesday, accusing the network of peddling “fake news” and refusing to let one of its reporters ask a question. CNN defended its reporting in a statement Tuesday.

"We are fully confident in our reporting. It represents the core of what the First Amendment protects, informing the people of the inner workings of their government; in this case, briefing materials prepared for President Obama and President-elect Trump last week."

“We made it clear that we were not publishing any of the details of the 35-page document because we have not corroborated the report’s allegations.”

Buzzfeed’s report

Shortly after CNN published its story, Buzzfeed published its own story — a story that included the classified document almost in its entirety. This dossier was the one which CNN said had been provided to Trump during his intelligence briefing, and the same document that had been circulating since summer.

The document alleged the British intelligence heard from an unverified source that Russia was in possession of a videotape that showed Trump ordering prostitutes to urinate in front of him. According to the document, Russia was using the tape to blackmail Trump.

Posters to online bulletin board 4chan claim to have planted the information that lead to the sexual allegations, but those reports also remain unverified.

 

 

 

The dossier alleged — without specific verification — that the Trump team amended the Republican platform to Russia’s advantage. It also stated that Trump knew that the Russians had hacked the Democratic National Committee and provided the information to WikiLeaks.

Buzzfeed’s story mentioned that it had not verified the document, but went ahead and published it to “let Americans make up their own minds.”

That didn’t stop many in the journalism community from criticizing the website. Journalists from The Atlantic, the Washington PostCNN, Poynter and other traditional media outlets have published pieces critical of Buzzfeed’s decision to release the report in full.

Mistakes in the unverified document

The unverified document contains a number of mistakes. Buzzfeed identified two of these mistakes in its own story: A company named Alfa Group is misspelled as “Alpha Group,” and a Russia city is mistakenly identified as “reserved” for only top leadership in the Russian government.

The report also claims that one of Trump’s attorneys, Michael Cohen, visited the Czech Republic in August to visit with Russian officials. Cohen denied the reports on Twitter, and other outlets are reporting that the British intelligence agent had mistakenly identified another man with the same name.

Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.