Trump-Russia Intelligence Reports: What We Know and What's Still Unverified

By Brinton Parker
Getty | Drew Angerer
Getty | Drew Angerer

The internet is abuzz with speculation after the emergence of a 35-page report alleging that Russia possesses salacious information about President-elect Donald Trump. Some details of the report in particular, like Trump hiring Russian prostitutes to perform foul acts as an insult to the Obamas, have taken over social media.

Beyond this scandalous claim, the report (first reported by CNN) also raises more serious allegations about Trump's dealings with Russia. While the specific details of the report remain unverified, major media outlets have confirmed that US intelligence took them seriously enough that both President Obama and President-elect Trump have been briefed on the information. Read on to separate the facts from the claims that remain uncorroborated.

What We Know

  • The US government presented a summary of unsubstantiated reports that Russia had collected, containing potentially compromising information about both Donald Trump and his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton.
  • The compromising information obtained about Clinton was released as part of the Russian election hack, US intelligence agencies say.
  • US officials have disclosed that this report was acquired through nontraditional means of intelligence: via a political consultancy entity and a former British intelligence official.
  • Upon receipt of the 35-page report, The New York Times wrote that "intelligence agencies considered it so potentially explosive that they decided Mr. Obama, Mr. Trump and congressional leaders needed to be told about it and that the agencies were actively investigating it."
  • Last week, during the election report about Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election, several chiefs of the US intelligence agencies — James Clapper (director of National Intelligence), John Brennan (director of the CIA), James Comey (director of the FBI), and Mike Rogers (director of the National Security Agency) — briefed both President Obama and President-elect Trump on the classified documents via a two-page summary of their contents.

What's Still Unverified

  • According to reports by CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post (among others), the entire contents of the 35-page report remain unconfirmed and contain errors. However, the contents concerned intelligence officials enough to present the information to the POTUS and POTUS-elect in case any of the information was leaked to the press before it was substantiated.
  • The troubling contents of the report — including Trump agreeing to downplay Russian intervention in Ukraine during his campaign as a favor to Vladimir Putin — are still under investigation by US intelligence. The report also purports that Russia has been working on bolstering Trump for as long as five years.
  • Other disturbing yet unconfirmed details from the report include an allegation that Trump hired prostitutes to urinate on a hotel bed formerly occupied by Barack and Michelle Obama.

Naturally, Trump denies that any of the report's claims are true. He responded on Twitter, his favorite method of communication.

FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017

We will continue to update this post as more details are revealed.