U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday that U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called him to denounce the "false and fictitious" report about a dossier that makes salacious claims about him in Russia.
Clapper, in a statement on Wednesday, said he had spoken with Trump that evening and told the president-elect that he did not believe the media leaks of the report came from the intelligence community.
"James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated. Made up, phony facts. Too bad!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
Clapper said in a statement Wednesday that he was unhappy the document had been published but did not make any judgments about its accuracy during his conversation with Trump.
"The (intelligence community) 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," Clapper said. "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."
(Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
