Donald Trump continues to bash the intelligence community in Friday morning tweetstorm

Trump is airing his anti-intelligence community grievances on Twitter again

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published January 13, 2017 1:33PM (EST)

FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2017 file photo, President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. Trump has promised to donate to the Treasury "profits" from foreign governments officials staying at his hotels. But he left unawares many questions about the practicalities, pitfalls and accountability.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) (AP)
FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2017 file photo, President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. Trump has promised to donate to the Treasury "profits" from foreign governments officials staying at his hotels. But he left unawares many questions about the practicalities, pitfalls and accountability. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) (AP)

President-elect Donald Trump can't seem to quit his anger toward the intelligence community, as indicated by his latest Twitter rant on Friday morning.

The 35-page dossier alleging that Trump had been compromised by the Russian government was compiled by Christopher Steele, a former intelligence officer who worked for the British CIA equivalent, MI6. Although the American intelligence community had no role in acquiring the information contained within the document, they provided a summary to both Trump and President Barack Obama. The intelligence community also determined that Steele had a credible reputation.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has made it clear that he expressed "profound dismay" to the president-elect about the fact that the report managed to get publicized. Trump acknowledged Clapper's position in a Twitter post on Thursday. But the incoming president interpreted that differently.

Vice President Joe Biden's office confirmed on Thursday that both he and President Obama were briefed on the dossier because intelligence officers felt a responsibility to do so (since they would also be telling Trump). According to Biden's office, the president's reaction to the dossier was to ask, "What does this have to do with anything?"


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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