Update | ‘Very un-American!’: Donald Trump accuses FBI and NSA of intelligence leaks that brought down Michael Flynn
The revelations have infuriated Democrats and unsettled Republican leaders wary about Trump’s professed desire for better relations with Moscow
President Donald Trump railed at US intelligence agencies on Wednesday as Washington was shaken by new reports of high-level Russian contacts with his aides and associates during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In a barrage of early morning tweets, Trump accused the US intelligence community of being behind the leaks, directly pointing the finger at the National Security Agency and the FBI.
“The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by “intelligence” like candy,” Trump wrote in one tweet. “Very un-American!”
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the latest allegations.
“Don’t believe newspaper reports, it’s very difficult at the moment to differentiate them from falsehoods and fabrications,” Peskov told reporters. “If you don’t mind let’s wait and let’s not believe anonymous information, which is information based on no fact.”
The revelations have infuriated Democrats and unsettled Republican leaders wary about Trump’s professed desire for better relations with Moscow.
“This ongoing story is a perfect piece of evidence as to why we should not trust Russia,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told MSNBC.