Washington: Donald Trump appeared to suggest that outgoing CIA Director John Brennan may have been behind the publication of an unverified intelligence dossier connecting the president-elect to Russia.
“Was this the leaker of Fake News?,” Trump said at the end of two tweets in which he attacked Brennan for being critical of him in an interview to Fox News earlier yesterday.
In his interview, the outgoing CIA Director slammed Trump for equating the actions of intelligence community with that of Nazi Germany, describing it as “outrageous”.
“What I find outrageous is equating the intelligence community with Nazi Germany. I do take great umbrage at that, and there is no basis for Mr Trump to point fingers at the intelligence community for leaking information that was already available publicly,” Brennan told Fox News.
Brennan was responding to questions on a tweet by the President-elect after media reports about an alleged intelligence community document which claimed that the Russian intelligence agencies have compromised Trump’s personal and financial information.
“I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful, that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out be so false and fake out. I think it’s a disgrace, and I say that and I say that, and that something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do,” Trump had said after the document was published.
Retweeting a Fox News headline, Trump wrote: “@FoxNews ‘Outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan, blasts Pres-Elect Trump on Russia threat. Does not fully understand.’ Oh really, couldn’t do much worse – just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?”.