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 / Updated By Hasani Gittens and Ken Dilanian 
 
 The president-elect has taken yet more swipes at the intelligence community that will be under his command in just a few weeks, once again on Twitter. 
 
 Donald Trump mocked intelligence officials on Tuesday evening, claiming they had delayed a scheduled briefing on alleged Russian hacking because they "needed more time to build a case." 
 
 And on Wednesday, Trump continued to cast doubt on intelligence findings as he cited WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange's claim that a "14-year-old kid could have hacked" the emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta. "Also [Assange] said Russians did not give him the info!" Trump added. 
 
 Trump's tweets came after Assange once again claimed that Russia was not the source of Podesta's stolen emails, published by WikiLeaks. He told Fox News' Sean Hannity that our "source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party" and that "a 14-year-old kid could have hacked Podesta." 
 
 Intelligence experts both inside and outside of the government say evidence suggests Russia had tried to influence the election. The Obama administration has said the hacking campaign went to the highest level of the Russian government. 
 
 Trump has previously stated that it's nearly impossible to know who hacked what and when. The president-elect antagonized the intelligence community over the weekend, telling reporters gathered outside his New Year’s Eve party that hacking is a “very hard thing to prove” and that he knows “things that other people don’t know, and so [intelligence officials] cannot be sure of the situation." 
 
 Trump has promised to reveal what he proclaims to know this week but there has been some confusion over when he will receive new intelligence briefings. 
 
 He initially said he would be meeting with high-level intel briefers mid-week but that it was delayed. 
 
 However, a senior U.S. intelligence official with direct knowledge of the situation told NBC News Tuesday night that the heads of the NSA, CIA, FBI and the director of national intelligence were always scheduled to meet with Trump on Friday. 
 
 Another official had previously told NBC News that the briefing was scheduled for Wednesday, but that was apparently wrong. 
 
 A senior intelligence official called Trump's tweet disturbing and "adversarial," telling NBC News: "He's calling out the men and women of the intelligence community the way he called out Lockheed and Boeing, but these are public servants." 
 
 Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the new top Democrat in the Senate, said on MSNBC Tuesday night that Trump was being "really dumb" in taking on the U.S. intelligence community. "You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you," he told Rachel Maddow on her show. 
 
 CIA Director John Brennan told PBS Newshour Tuesday that his report on Russian hacking was in the “final throes” and would be delivered to President Obama in days. 
 
 Meanwhile, Trump earlier Tuesday tweeted that he would be holding his first news conference in over five months. The Jan. 11 date is a reschedule from when Trump had promised to hold a press conference in late December, but didn't. The last time Trump held a pre-scheduled open media availability was on July 27, 2016. ||||| Washington (CNN) President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter Tuesday evening to deride the US intelligence agencies due to brief him on alleged Russian hacking of American political groups. 
 
 The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! 
 
 It was his latest attack on a key body he will rely on as commander in chief and again put him at odds with the agencies' unanimous conclusion that Russia hacked Democratic Party groups and individuals to interfere in the US presidential election. 
 
 Trump suggested that intelligence officials postponed an " 'intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' " that they were set to deliver to him this week because they might need more time "to build a case." He called the alleged delay "very strange." 
 
 Trump tweeted Wednesday , "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!" 
 
 Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! 
 
 Trump said last week that he would receive an intelligence briefing on the Russian breaches this week and suggested it would come early on, telling reporters on New Year's Eve that they would know more about the subject "Tuesday or Wednesday." 
 
 But US intelligence officials disputed Trump's tweet alleging a delay. 
 
 Top US intelligence officials have been scheduled to brief Trump on the full report on Russian hacking President Barack Obama ordered once it was completed, but the meeting was not set to take place until later in the week, according to US officials. 
 
 The meeting was never scheduled for Tuesday, as even Obama has yet to receive the full-fledged briefing on the Russian hacking, one US official said. 
 
 And a US intelligence official told CNN that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was never scheduled to be in New York City, where Trump is, on Tuesday -- and was perplexed about the "delay" Trump claimed was taking place. 
 
 Trump on Tuesday did receive a classified intelligence briefing -- the Presidential Daily Briefing -- which Trump has elected to receive only sporadically. But it did not dive deeply into the Russian hacking. 
 
 US officials briefed on the matter said Clapper, National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers, FBI Director James Comey and CIA Director John Brennan are scheduled to attend the meeting with Trump providing him details on the Russian hacking. 
 
 While Obama met with the heads of US intelligence agencies in his first weeks as president-elect, Trump has yet to do so eight weeks after he was elected, which US officials said was due to Trump's scheduling conflicts. 
 
 Instead, the President-elect has repeatedly questioned their assessment of Russian cyber activity. 
 
 Before the election, when 17 US intelligence agencies issued a public statement concluding that Russia orchestrated the hack of the Democratic National Committee, Trump immediately cast doubt on those conclusions, arguing it was impossible to distinguish between a Russian government operative and "somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds." 
 
 After Obama then slapped a series of sanctions on Russia, Trump issued a statement calling for the country to "move on to bigger and better things" and then tweeted praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin for not retaliating against the sanctions. 
 
 Trump continued his skepticism on New Year's Eve, telling reporters once again that it "could be somebody else." 
 
 "I know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove," he said. 
 
 He added that he also knows "things that other people don't know, so they can't be sure of the situation." 
 
 On Tuesday, Russia again denied intervening in the US election campaign. 
 
 Reacting to a US intelligence official who told CNN the administration traced the hack to specific keyboards, which featured Cyrillic characters, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said: "I don't understand what this means exactly but Cyrillic characters can be used everywhere." 
 
 "Once again I reject any possibility that official Russia can be involved in any way," he added. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Donald Trump has cast doubt on the findings of the intelligence agencies co-ordinated by Gen James Clapper (right) 
 
 Hacking had no effect on the outcome of the US election, President-elect Donald Trump has said after a meeting with intelligence chiefs. 
 
 However, Mr Trump said he would ask for a plan within 90 days of taking office on how to stop cyber-attacks. 
 
 US intelligence chiefs believe Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic Party emails to damage Hillary Clinton. 
 
 But hours before the briefing, Mr Trump dismissed the claims as a "political witch-hunt" by his opponents. 
 
 He told the New York Times that US institutions had been the target of previous hacking attacks, but they had not received the same media attention as the alleged intrusions during the election campaign. 
 
 Later, Mr Trump described the briefing at Trump Tower by National Intelligence Director Gen James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey as "constructive". 
 
 In a statement he declined to single out Russia and said he had "tremendous respect for the work and service done" by those in the US intelligence community. 
 
 "While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organisations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election." 
 
 He added: "Whether it is our government, organisations, associations or businesses we need to aggressively combat and stop cyber-attacks. I will appoint a team to give me a plan within 90 days of taking office." 
 
 Since winning the election, Mr Trump has repeatedly questioned intelligence on the hacking claims. 
 
 And in a tweet on Friday, Mr Trump said he wanted an investigation into how "top secret intelligence" was shared with US broadcaster NBC "prior to me seeing it". 
 
 An unclassified version of the intelligence report will be made public next week, but some details have already started emerging in US media, including on NBC. 
 
 The identities of the Russian agents behind the hack are known to US authorities but have not been released, reports say, citing intelligence sources. 
 
 Earlier on Friday, Sean Spicer, who will become White House communications director under Mr Trump, told ABC's Good Morning on Friday that the president-elect would go into the meeting "prepared to listen and understand how they got to the conclusions''. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Vice-president elect Mike Pence arrived at Trump Tower ahead of the briefing 
 
 The Russian agents are alleged to have sent stolen Democratic emails to WikiLeaks to try to swing the vote for Mr Trump. 
 
 Russia has denied any involvement in the hacking and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Moscow was not the source for the site's mass leak of emails from the Democratic Party. 
 
 According to CNN, the Washington Post and NBC News, citing intelligence sources, agencies had intercepted communications following the election which showed senior Russian government officials celebrated Donald Trump's win over rival Hillary Clinton. 
 
 "The Russians felt pretty good about what happened and they also felt pretty good about what they did," a senior US official quoted by the Washington Post said. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Preparations for Donald Trump's inauguration on 20 January are under way in Washington 
 
 NBC says the alleged Russian hacking targeted not just the Democratic National Committee (DNC) but also the White House, joint chiefs of staff, the department of state and large US corporations. 
 
 Mr Trump has repeatedly rejected allegations that the Russian government was behind the hacks. 
 
 On Wednesday, he repeated Julian Assange's claim that "a 14-year-old" could have carried out the breach, and said the DNC was "careless". 
 
 On Thursday, he said he was a "big fan" of intelligence agencies, but appeared to question their findings in a tweet, asking why they decided not to request to examine computers belonging to the DNC. 
 
 Outgoing Vice-President Joe Biden lambasted the president-elect on Thursday for attacking the intelligence community over the claims, saying it was "absolutely mindless" not to have faith in the agencies. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Joe Biden to Donald Trump: "Grow up, time to be an adult, you're president" 
 
 He told the PBS network that he had read a US intelligence report that clearly confirmed Russia had tried to "discredit the US electoral process" as part of a systematic campaign to undermine Mrs Clinton. 
 
 Her campaign manager, John Podesta, was among those whose emails were hacked, as well as the DNC. 
 
 Mr Biden also criticised Mr Trump for ignoring intelligence on the hack. 
 
 "The idea that you may know more than the intelligence community knows - it's like saying I know more about physics than my professor. I didn't read the book, I just know I know more," he said. 
 
 On Thursday, Gen Clapper told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the hack, and said the motive would be revealed next week. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Obama's former director of cyber security warns Russia hacking could be used as "playbook" 
 
 Republican Senator John McCain, a leading Russia critic in Congress who chaired the hearing, said it was in the interests of all Americans to confront the problem of foreign hacking. 
 
 "There is no national security interest more vital to the US than the ability to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference." 
 
 Last week President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from the US over the alleged hacking. Russia has said it will not reciprocate. ||||| Washington (CNN) President-elect Donald Trump is looking at possible ways to limit the power of the director of National Intelligence, according to sources close to the transition. 
 
 The thinking within the Trump transition team is that the DNI often gets in the way of the 16 intelligence agencies it represents, which includes the CIA, the sources told CNN. 
 
 Trump has been a harsh critic of US intelligence agencies. He has been skeptical of the US intelligence community saying Russia was behind the hacking meant to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. 
 
 The possible move was first reported by The Wall Street Journal 
 
 Trump is also considering expanding the CIA's human spying capabilities but wants an assessment once new intelligence leadership is in place, according to sources close to the transition. There has been building criticism among conservatives that the CIA under President Barack Obama has been too reliant on electronic spying and the NSA's signals intelligence. 
 
 Trump's incoming press secretary called reports that Trump would restructure US intelligence agencies "100% false" on Thursday. 
 
 "All transition activities are for information gathering purposes and all discussions are tentative," Sean Spicer told reporters on a press call. "The President-elect's top priority will be to ensure the safety of the American people and the security of the nation and he is committed to finding the best and most effective way to do it. But I want to reiterate, there is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure, it is 100% false." 
 
 Trump seemingly taunted the US intelligence agencies who are supposed to brief him on alleged Russian hacking via Twitter on Tuesday. 
 
 He suggested that intelligence officials postponed an "'intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking'" that they were set to deliver to him this week because they might need more time "to build a case." He called the alleged delay "very strange." 
 
 US intelligence officials disputed Trump's tweet, saying the meeting was not set to take place until later in the week. 
 
 Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, warned curbing the DNI's power will "diminish its effectiveness and reverse many of the important gains we had made since 9/11." 
 
 "It is appropriately staffed and resourced," he said in a statement Wednesday night. "Moreover, to propose changing the CIA's operational structure because of loose allegations of politicization -- claims based on nothing more than the agency's willingness to contradict the President-elect's preferred version of events -- would be a mistake of the highest order." 
 
 One source said that Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn -- Trump's pick for national security adviser -- has pushed the idea of reigning in the DNI. Flynn was pushed out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, which falls under the DNI's leadership. Flynn clashed with other intelligence officials, including his bosses Mike Vickers, the Pentagon's undersecretary for intelligence, and DNI James Clapper. 
 
 The office of the Director of National Intelligence was created in 2004 to help coordinate intelligence between the different agencies, as a response to the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. 
 
 The DNI rolled out a reorganization in 2015 that focused on giving more focus to field offices and Intel gathering, grouping analysis and gathering in field hubs for instance. 
 
 CNN's Jim Sciutto and Dan Merica contributed to this report.
– Donald Trump launched what the BBC describes as a "fresh assault on America's intelligence community" with a tweet Tuesday night accusing them of delaying a briefing—and putting "intelligence" in quotes. "The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case," Trump tweeted. "Very strange!" Officials, however, tell CNN that the briefing had never been scheduled for Tuesday, and even President Obama has yet to receive the final report from top intelligence officials on the alleged Russian hacking of the presidential election. Officials say Trump or his team may have mistakenly thought his regular intelligence briefing Tuesday would be the Russia-related one. A senior intelligence official tells NBC News that the director of national intelligence and heads of the NSA, CIA, and FBI are among those scheduled to meet with Trump on Friday. The Washington Post reports that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump's attitude toward intelligence services "really dumb" Tuesday night. "Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you," he told Rachel Maddow. "From what I am told, they are very upset with how he has treated them and talked about them." A source tells the Post that the report on Russian hacking could be on Obama's desk as soon as Thursday. A declassified version might be released to the public early next week, the source says. (At least one Trump adviser disagrees with the president-elect's skepticism.)