Donald Trump news conference: US President-elect attacks 'sick people' he blames for Russian dossier

Donald Trump says unverified claims are blot on intelligence agencies

Donald Trump has rejected reports Moscow has compiled a dossier of compromising information about his activities in and links to the Russian state.

Here are the latest updates:

• Trump says he is a 'germaphobe' in apparent response to dossier sex allegations
• Trump says he is 'completely isolating' himself from business empire
• 'If Putin likes me, it's an asset'
• Trump attacks the 'sick' people who put 'c**p' intelligence dossier together
• Unofficial and unverified report into Trump's alleged Russian links included in official security briefing
• Trump calls allegations fake news and a political witch-hunt
• Scanned copy of former British spy's unverified report published by BuzzFeed
• Trump holds his first new conference as President-elect

With just nine days to go until his inauguration, Donald Trump has again found himself at the centre of a scandal involving alleged links to the Russian state.

A classified briefing on Russian hacking, given to both President Barack Obama and the President-elect, included allegations that Mr Trump or his surrogates had direct contact with the Kremlin before and during the 2016 election campaign.

And the report also details "perverted sexual acts" involving prostitutes alleged to have taken place in a hotel room in Moscow. The suggestion is that the claims could have been used by Russia to compromise the incoming US President.

Mr Trump has strenuously denied the unverified allegations, which came in a two-page synopsis attached to a classified intelligence report into Russian interference in the US election. A declassified version was distributed publicly last week.

Intelligence officials said they could not independently verify the embarrassing claims, compiled by a former British spy who was hired by Mr Trump’s political opponents.

The Kremlin dismissed the report as "fake" and "total bluff" in a statement on Wednesday morning, saying it had no "compromising information" on either Mr Trump or his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton. On Tuesday night, Mr Trump's political advisor Kellyanne Conway also dismissed the claims as coming from "unnamed, unspoken sources."

[11 January 2017 12:36 · Adam Withnall]

Welcome to The Independent's live blog bringing you the latest reaction to the news that fresh allegations against Donald Trump were included in a classified briefing by intelligence officials to the President and President-elect.

[11 January 2017 14:08 · Andrew Buncombe]

Senator Bob Corker of the Foreign Relations Committee has just kicked off what is likely to be a long day of proceedings

[11 January 2017 14:09 · Andrew Buncombe]

They're going to be questioning Rex Tillerson, Mr Trump's pick for Secretary of State, certainly one of the the most important cabinet posts

[11 January 2017 14:42 · Andrew Buncombe]

Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat says, there are questions they want to put to Mr Tillerson "because of comments" Donald Trump has made

[11 January 2017 14:43 · Jay Kennick]

Keep seeing people and hearing of people who don't support each other ... support and love and help each other all… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…

[11 January 2017 14:43 · Justin Carissimo]

[11 January 2017 14:44 · Justin Carissimo]

[11 January 2017 14:45 · Justin Carissimo]

[11 January 2017 14:54 · Stuart Henderson]

Setting a tough tone for Mr Tillerson's  hearing, the panel's top Democrat, Senator Ben Cardin, regretted that remarks Mr Tillerson submitted ahead of the hearing did not mention the “direct, confirmed cyberattack by Russia on America”.

“It is frankly not too great a distance from Exxon's business partnerships to Putin's Kremlin-controlled slush funds essential for his 'disinformation' campaigns around the world,” Mr Cardin, a co-sponsor of a Senate sanctions bill aimed at Russia, said in prepared remarks.

[11 January 2017 14:59 · Justin Carissimo]

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