Senator John McCain passed documents to the FBI director, James Comey, last month alleging secret contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow and that Russian intelligence had personally compromising material on the president-elect himself. 
 
 
 
 The material, which has been seen by the Guardian, is a series of reports on Trump’s relationship with Moscow. They were drawn up by a former western counter-intelligence official, now working as a private consultant. BuzzFeed on Tuesday published the documents, which it said were “unverified and potentially unverifiable”. 
 
 Explainer: what is in the Trump-Russia dossier John McCain passed to the FBI? Read more 
 
 The Guardian has not been able to confirm the veracity of the documents’ contents, and the Trump team has consistently denied any hidden contacts with the Russian government. 
 
 A spokesman for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday denied Russia has collected compromising information on Trump and dismissed news reports as a “complete fabrication and utter nonsense”. Dmitry Peskov insisted that the Kremlin “does not engage in collecting compromising material”. 
 
 Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but late on Tuesday, Trump tweeted: “FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!” He made no direct reference to the allegations. 
 
 An official in the US administration who spoke to the Guardian described the source who wrote the intelligence report as consistently reliable, meticulous and well-informed, with a reputation for having extensive Russian contacts. 
 
 Some of the reports – which are dated from 20 June to 20 October last year – also proved to be prescient, predicting events that happened after they were sent. 
 
 
 
 One report, dated June 2016, claims that the Kremlin has been cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for at least five years, with the aim of encouraging “splits and divisions in western alliance”. 
 
 It claims that Trump had declined “various sweetener real estate deals offered him in Russia” especially in developments linked to the 2018 World Cup finals but that “he and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals.” 
 
 Most explosively, the report alleges: “FSB has compromised Trump through his activities in Moscow sufficiently to be able to blackmail him.” The president-elect has not responded to the allegations. 
 
 The story of the Trump dossier: secret sources, an airport handoff, and John McCain Read more 
 
 CNN reported on Tuesday that the FBI was still investigating the credibility of the documents but added that the intelligence chiefs had included a summary of the material in a secret briefing on Russian interference in the election delivered last week to Barack Obama and Donald Trump. 
 
 The emergence of the documents is potentially explosive, 10 days before Trump’s inauguration and on the eve of his first planned press conference since July last year. 
 
 Despite glowing references from US and foreign officials who have worked with the source, there are some errors in the reports. One describes the Moscow suburb of Barvikha as “reserved for the residences of the top leadership and their close associates”, but although it is a very expensive neighbourhood, there are no restrictions on who can own property there. The document also misspells the name of a Russian banking corporation. 
 
 The FBI does not normally make any comment on ongoing counter-intelligence investigations but was under increasing pressure from Democrats and some Republicans to act before the inauguration, particularly because of Comey’s announcement of a continuing investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server 11 days before the election, which many of her supporters believe cost her the presidency. 
 
 
 
 The reports were initially commissioned as opposition research during the presidential campaign, but its author was sufficiently alarmed by what he discovered to send a copy to the FBI. It is unclear who within the organisation they reached and what action the bureau took. The former Democratic Senate leader, Harry Reid, has lambasted Comey for publicising investigations into Hillary Clinton’s private server, while allegedly sitting on “explosive” material on Trump’s ties to Russia. 
 
 Another Democratic senator, Ron Wyden, questioned Comey insistently at a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Tuesday on whether the FBI was pursuing leads on Trump campaign contacts with Russia. 
 
 “Has the FBI investigated these reported relationships?” Wyden asked. 
 
 Comey replied: “I would never comment on investigations … in a public forum. 
 
 The Guardian can confirm that the documents reached the top of the FBI by December. Senator John McCain, who was informed about the existence of the documents separately by an intermediary from a western allied state, dispatched an emissary overseas to meet the source and then decided to present the material to Comey in a one-on-one meeting on 9 December, according to a source aware of the meeting. The documents, which were first reported on last year by Mother Jones, are also in the hands of officials in the White House. 
 
 James Comey refuses to tell Senate if FBI is investigating Trump-Russia links Read more 
 
 McCain is not thought to have made a judgment on the reliability of the documents but was sufficiently impressed by the source’s credentials to feel obliged to pass them to the FBI. 
 
 The Senate armed services committee, which Senator McCain chairs, launched an inquiry last week into Russian cyber-attacks during the election. 
 
 McCain was reluctant to get involved, according to a colleague, for fear the issue would be dismissed as a personal grudge against Trump. He pushed instead for the creation of a special Senate committee to look into connections between campaign staff and Moscow, but the proposal was blocked by the Republican leadership. 
 
 McCain told the NBC programme Meet the Press on Sunday: “I would like to see a select committee. Apparently that is not in agreement by our leadership. So we will move forward with the armed services committee and I’m sure foreign relations and intelligence committee will as well.” 
 
 But the senator added: “It is possible if enough information comes out, that that decision could be reversed. I still think it’s the best way to attack the issue.” 
 
 Asked on the same programme on whether an investigation was ongoing into campaign links to Moscow, Senator Lindsey Graham, another conservative Republican said: “I believe that it’s happening.” 
 
 According to the report passed to Comey, Russian intelligence allegedly gathered compromising material during Trump’s stay in Moscow in November 2013, when he was in the city to host the Miss Universe pageant. 
 
 
 
 Another report, dated 19 July last year said that Carter Page, a businessman named by Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers, had held a secret meeting that month with Igor Sechin, head of the Rosneft state-owned oil company and a long-serving lieutenant of Vladimir Putin. Page also allegedly met Igor Divyekin, an internal affairs official with a background in intelligence, who is said to have warned Page that Moscow had “kompromat” (compromising material) on Trump. 
 
 Two months later, allegations of Page’s meetings surfaced in the US media, attributed to intelligence sources, along with reports that he had been under FBI scrutiny. 
 
 Page, a vociferous supporter of the Kremlin line, was in Moscow in July to make a speech decrying western policy towards Russia. At the time he declined to say whether he had been in contact with Russian officials, but in September he rejected the reports as “garbage”. 
 
 The Guardian has learned that the FBI applied for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials. The Fisa court turned down the application asking FBI counter-intelligence investigators to narrow its focus. According to one report, the FBI was finally granted a warrant in October, but that has not been confirmed, and it is not clear whether any warrant led to a full investigation. 
 
 A month after Trump’s surprise election victory, Page was back in Moscow saying he was meeting with “business leaders and thought leaders”, dismissing the FBI investigation as a “witch-hunt” and suggesting the Russian hacking of the Democratic Party alleged by US intelligence agencies, could be a false flag operation to incriminate Moscow. 
 
 Another of the reports compiled by the former western counter-intelligence official in July said that members of Trump’s team, which was led by campaign manager Paul Manafort (a former consultant for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine), had knowledge of the DNC hacking operation, and in return “had agreed to sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue and to raise US/Nato defence commitments in the Baltics and Eastern Europe to deflect attention away from Ukraine”. 
 
 A few days later, Trump raised the possibility that his administration might recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea and openly called on Moscow to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails. 
 
 In August, officials from the Trump campaign intervened in the drafting of the Republican party platform, specifically to remove a call for lethal assistance to Ukraine for its battle against Moscow-backed eastern rebels. 
 
 Trump campaign denies report of Trump Organization tie to Russian bank Read more 
 
 Manafort stepped down in August as campaign manager and the campaign steadily distanced itself from Page. However, Trump’s praise of Putin and defence of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and Syria remained one of the few constants in his campaign talking points. 
 
 Manafort has denied secret links with Moscow calling the allegation “an outrageous smear being driven by Harry Reid and the Clinton campaign”. 
 
 Since then, Trump has consistently cast doubt on Russian culpability for hacking the Democratic National Committee, defying a consensus of 17 national intelligence agencies. After Obama deported 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for Moscow’s intervention, Trump praised Putin for not carrying out tit-for-tat deportations of US diplomats. “I always knew he was very smart,” he tweeted. 
 
 An FBI spokesman declined to comment after the CNN report. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — Top intelligence officials last week told President-elect Donald Trump about an unsubstantiated report that Russia had compromising personal and financial information about him, a U.S. official said Tuesday. 
 
 The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not allowed to publicly discuss the matter. 
 
 The briefing about the document was first reported by CNN. A summary of the allegations was separate from a classified assessment of Russia's attempts to meddle in the U.S. presidential election. Trump and President Barack Obama were briefed on the intelligence community's findings last week. 
 
 Shortly after news reports were published about the briefing, Trump tweeted: "FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!" 
 
 Trump was expected to hold a previously scheduled news conference Wednesday to discuss his future plans regarding his role with the Trump Organization. 
 
 The unsubstantiated dossier on Trump was compiled by a former Western intelligence operative as part of an opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client who opposed Trump, and later funded by Democrats, according to Mother Jones, which published an article about the report in October and said the operative had turned over the report to the FBI. The New York Times reported the operative had previously worked for British intelligence. The Associated Press has not been able to substantiate the information in the dossier, which misspelled the name of Russia's largest bank. 
 
 It's unclear why the intelligence officials decided to brief the president and Trump on the uncorroborated information at this time, but lawmakers and others have repeatedly noted that Russia collects intelligence on both Democrats and Republicans. 
 
 "The Russians also hacked systems associated with the Republicans. They just chose not to release that material yet," Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said Tuesday. "There's nothing that prevents them from doing so at a time of their choosing in the future." 
 
 Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said in an interview Tuesday on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" that "nobody has sourced it. They're all unnamed, unspoken sources in the story." She said it may have originated with a Russian investigator or groups that wanted Hillary Clinton to win the White House. 
 
 The report had been circulating in Washington for months. In October, former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wrote the FBI asking the bureau to publicly disclose what it knew about the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. Reid was aware of the dossier before he wrote the letter, according to a person knowledgeable about the subject who spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. 
 
 FBI Director James Comey refused earlier Tuesday to say whether the FBI was investigating any possible ties between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign, citing policy not to comment on what the FBI might or might not be doing. 
 
 Comey was pressed by Democrats on the committee about whether the FBI was conducting an investigation. There was no mention during the hearing about the summary of the dossier, which was attached to the classified hacking assessment. 
 
 "I would never comment on investigations — whether we have one or not — in an open forum like this so I can't answer one way or another," Comey told the panel during his first public appearance before Congress since the election. In late October, Comey angered Democrats when he announced 11 days before the election that the FBI was looking at more emails as part of its investigation of Hillary Clinton. 
 
 Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said the American people had a right to know about whether there is an FBI investigation into the Trump campaign's ties with Russia. 
 
 An active FBI investigation of the next president for ties between his campaign and a nation accused of meddling in the presidential election could further stoke mistrust in the legitimacy of the democratic process. It could also put Trump's own FBI in the awkward position of examining the conduct of those closest to the commander-in-chief. 
 
 The FBI was among three U.S. intelligence agencies that collaborated on last week's report on Russia's election activity. It tied Russian President Vladimir Putin to the hacking of email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and individual Democrats like Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta. It said there was no evidence the Russians tampered with vote tallies; the agencies said they couldn't assess if Russia succeeded in influencing Americans to vote for Trump. 
 
 Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who opposed Trump in the GOP primary, said Russia's activity wasn't guided by its support for Trump, but rather "to influence and to potentially manipulate American public opinion for the purpose of discrediting individual political figures, sowing chaos and division in our politics, sowing doubts about the legitimacy of our elections." 
 
 Democrats at the committee hearing focused their toughest questions on Comey, who was widely criticized for breaking FBI policy in his decision to notify Congress about additional information that came up related to Clinton. He is in the fourth year of a 10-year term, meaning he is expected to stay on in the Trump administration. 
 
 Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said Comey set a new standard by discussing the bureau's activity related to Clinton's private email server. That standard, she said, is the FBI discusses ongoing investigations when there is a "unique public interest in the transparency of that issue." 
 
 The intelligence agencies' findings on Russian hacking fit that standard, she argued. 
 
 "I'm not sure I can think of an issue of more serious public interest than this one," Harris said. "This committee needs to understand what the FBI does and does not know about campaign communications with Russia." 
 
 Sitting beside Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said, "Fair point." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Kathleen Hennessey contributed to this report. ||||| Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump can be given classified intelligence briefings now that they are the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, the top U.S. intelligence official said Thursday, despite calls from party leaders to limit the other candidate's access to national security secrets. 
 
 “We will brief both candidates if they want it,” James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, said at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colo. 
 
 The candidates don’t need a security clearance to receive the briefing, Clapper said. He said they both are entitled to get classified information because they now are the major party nominees. 
 
 Sharing intelligence assessments with presidential nominees is a tradition that goes back to Harry Truman, who signed the law that created the CIA in 1947. 
 
 Senior officials in both parties have sought to turn this year's closed-door briefings into a campaign issue. 
 
 After the FBI director said this month that Clinton had been extremely careless but had broken no laws by using a private email server while secretary of State, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) urged Clapper to deny classified material to her. 
 
 Giving the Democratic nominee access, he wrote in a letter, would “send the wrong signal to all those charged with safeguarding our nations’ secrets." 
 
 Clinton is scheduled to accept her party's nomination tonight at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. 
 
 Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), in turn, said that U.S. intelligence analysts should "fake it" if they are ordered to brief Trump, a businessman who has never held elected office. 
 
 "If you're forced to brief this guy, don't tell him anything," he told the Huffington Post. "Just fake it because this man is dangerous." 
 
 Intelligence officials say election briefings to presidential nominees tend to be chiefly analysis of current events and leaders, and do not include highly classified details of spying sources and methods. 
 
 Clapper said this year's heated campaign rhetoric has been “very bothersome” to U.S. allies. 
 
 “I hear that from my counterparts who take very, very seriously and study very, very closely what political figures in this country say and it is worrying to them,” he said. 
 
 “I tell them that it is part of our process in the United States and, hopefully, it will all come out right.” ||||| The extraordinary but unverified documents published on Tuesday on Donald Trump’s ties with Moscow began life as a piece of opposition research, which has become as much a part of US politics as yard signs and coloured balloons. 
 
 
 
 There is a small industry of research and investigative firms in Washington, typically staffed by a mix of former journalists and security officials, adept at finding information about politicians that the politicians would rather stay hidden. The firms often do not know who exactly is hiring them; the request could come from a law firm acting on behalf of a client from one of the parties. 
 
 In this case, the request for opposition research on Donald Trump came from one of his Republican opponents in the primary campaign. The research firm then hired one of its sub-contractors who it used regularly on all things Russian: a retired western European former counter-intelligence official, with a long history of dealing with the shadow world of Moscow’s spooks and siloviki (securocrats). 
 
 Explainer: what is in the Trump-Russia dossier John McCain passed to the FBI? Read more 
 
 By the time the contractor had started his research, however, the Republican primary was over. The original client had dropped out, but the firm that had hired him had found a new, Democratic client. This was not necessarily the Hillary Clinton campaign or the Democratic National Committee. Opposition research is frequently financed by wealthy individuals who have donated all they can and are looking for other ways to help. 
 
 By July, the counter-intelligence contractor had collected a significant amount of material based on Russian sources who he had grown to trust over the years – not just in Moscow, but also among oligarchs living in the west. He delivered his reports, but the gravity of their contents weighed on him. If the allegations were real, their implications were overwhelming. 
 
 He delivered a set to former colleagues in the FBI, whose counter-intelligence division would be the appropriate body to investigate. It is believed he also passed a copy to his own country’s intelligence service, but it felt constrained in what action it could take and left it up to the Americans to do their own investigation and draw their own conclusions. 
 
 As summer turned to autumn, the investigator was asked for more information by the FBI but heard nothing back about any investigation. The bureau seemed obsessed instead with classified material that flowed through a private email server set up by Clinton’s aides. The FBI’s director, James Comey, threw the election into a spin 11 days before the vote by announcing his investigators were examining newly discovered material. 
 
 The former intelligence official grew concerned that there was a cover-up in progress. On a trip to New York in October, he was persuaded to tell his story to David Corn, the Washington editor of Mother Jones, who first reported the existence of the material on 31 October. 
 
 The FBI however continued to refuse to comment on the issue, despite reports that it had requested and perhaps acquired a warrant for further investigation from the Foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court. The silence was not altogether surprising. The FBI counter-intelligence division, headquartered in Washington, is extremely secretive, much more so than the New York field office, which had strong links to former prosecutor and mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was by then working for Trump. The threat of leaks from New York about Clinton emails had reportedly pushed Comey into making his October surprise announcement. 
 
 Donald Trump press conference: Russia allegations something 'Nazi Germany' would have done – live Read more 
 
 In mid-November, the documents took another route into Washington that ultimately led to them being mentioned in the joint intelligence report on Russian interference that was delivered to President Obama and President-elect Trump. On 18 November, the annual Halifax International Security Forum opened in the Canadian city, bringing together serving and former security and foreign policy officials from around the world. 
 
 Senator John McCain, a hawkish Republican, was there and was introduced to a former senior western diplomat who had seen the documents, knew their source and thought him highly reliable. McCain decided the implications were sufficiently alarming to dispatch a trusted emissary, a former US official, to meet the source and find out more. 
 
 The emissary hastily arranged a transatlantic flight and met the source at the airport as arranged. (The Guardian has agreed not to specify the city or country where the meeting took place.) The meeting had a certain cold war tradecraft to it, as he was told to look for a man with a copy of the Financial Times. Having found each other, the retired counter-intelligence officer drove the emissary to his house, where they discussed the documents and their background. 
 
 The emissary flew back within 24 hours and showed McCain the documents, saying it was hard to impossible to verify them without a proper investigation. McCain said he was reluctant to get involved, lest it be perceived as payback for insulting remarks Trump had made about him during his rambunctious campaign. 
 
 However, on 9 December, McCain arranged a one-on-one meeting with Comey, with no aides present, and handed them over. 
 
 BuzzFeed publishes unsubstantiated Trump report, raising ethics questions Read more 
 
 “Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the FBI. That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue,” the senator said in a statement on Wednesday morning. 
 
 It is not clear what underpinned the FBI’s decision to include a summary of the documents in its highly classified briefing to the president and president-elect and their top staff, before the bureau had completed its investigation. It may have been as a defensive measure, to prove for posterity that it was not involved in a cover-up, or because its investigators believed them to be credible. 
 
 Whatever the motive, it was quickly leaked – first to CNN, which reported on the material on Wednesday. That triggered a controversial decision by BuzzFeed to publish an unredacted version of the documents on its website. It is unclear where the BuzzFeed version came from. The author of the reports had been insistent on blotting out references to his Russian sources in the copies he gave to the press, out of fear for their safety. The unredacted version could have come from the original client, who commissioned the research, or from intermediaries between the counter-intelligence contractor and the client. ||||| Drew Angerer / Getty Images ID: 10302602 
 
 A dossier making explosive — but unverified — allegations that the Russian government has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” President-elect Donald Trump for years and gained compromising information about him has been circulating among elected officials, intelligence agents, and journalists for weeks. 
 
 The dossier, which is a collection of memos written over a period of months, includes specific, unverified, and potentially unverifiable allegations of contact between Trump aides and Russian operatives, and graphic claims of sexual acts documented by the Russians. BuzzFeed News reporters in the US and Europe have been investigating various alleged facts in the dossier but have not verified or falsified them. CNN reported Tuesday that a two-page synopsis of the report was given to President Obama and Trump. 
 
 Now BuzzFeed News is publishing the full document so that Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the US government. 
 
 The document was prepared for political opponents of Trump by a person who is understood to be a former British intelligence agent. It is not just unconfirmed: It includes some clear errors. The report misspells the name of one company, “Alpha Group,” throughout. It is Alfa Group. The report says the settlement of Barvikha, outside Moscow, is “reserved for the residences of the top leadership and their close associates.” It is not reserved for anyone, and it is also populated by the very wealthy. 
 
 The Trump administration’s transition team did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment. However, the president-elect’s attorney, Michael Cohen, told Mic that the allegations were absolutely false. 
 
 
 
 “It’s so ridiculous on so many levels,” he said. “Clearly, the person who created this did so from their imagination or did so hoping that the liberal media would run with this fake story for whatever rationale they might have.” 
 
 
 
 And Trump shot back against the reports a short time later on Twitter. 
 
 FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) ID: 10302576 
 
 His former campaign manager and current senior White House adviser, Kellyanne Conway, also denied the claims during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers, adding that “nothing has been confirmed.” She also said Trump was “not aware” of any briefing on the matter. 
 
 The documents have circulated for months and acquired a kind of legendary status among journalists, lawmakers, and intelligence officials who have seen them. Mother Jones writer David Corn referred to the documents in a late October column. 
 
 Harry Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson tweeted Tuesday that the former Senate Democratic leader had seen the documents before writing a public letter to FBI Director James Comey about Trump’s ties to Russia. And CNN reported Tuesday that Arizona Republican John McCain gave a “full copy” of the memos to Comey on Dec. 9, but that the FBI already had copies of many of the memos. 
 
 If you have tips related to this story, write us at trumpstories@buzzfeed.com. To send us information confidentially, go here. 
 
 Read the report here: ||||| A day before U.S. intelligence agencies take their case on hacking during the 2016 campaign directly to Donald Trump, spy chiefs publicly rebuffed the president-elect’s criticism of their work and reiterated that Russia’s most senior officials authorized the e-mail theft and disclosures. 
 
 “There is a difference between skepticism and disparagement,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday when asked about Trump’s repeated questioning of the intelligence agencies’ conclusions and reliability. “Public trust and confidence in the intelligence community is crucial.” 
 
 Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey are scheduled to brief Trump Friday on the hacking and leaks of e-mails from Democratic officials and organizations backing his campaign rival Hillary Clinton. They’ll face a skeptical interrogator in the president-elect, who has said “hacking is a very hard thing to prove” and that intelligence agencies have been wrong before. 
 
 But Clapper told the Senate panel that the intelligence agencies’ confidence in their findings is now “very high” and they are “even more resolute” in their findings about Russian involvement than when they first weighed in on the issue publicly on Oct. 7. Yet Clapper also emphasized that Russian hacking didn’t change the vote count that made Trump president. 
 
 He testified alongside Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre and Admiral Michael Rogers, who leads both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. 
 
 The hearing -- called by Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona -- highlighted a divide between Trump and some of his party’s most influential foreign policy hawks in Congress. Trump has repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, while McCain and other lawmakers have said Russia, which has repeatedly denied the hacking accusations, should be punished with stiffer sanctions. 
 
 Rocks, Not Pebbles 
 
 Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said “Putin is up to no good” and “it is time now not to throw pebbles, but rocks.” Addressing Trump’s barbs against the intelligence community, Graham said: “Mr. President-elect, when you listen to these people you can be skeptical, but understand they’re the best among us and they’re trying to protect us.” 
 
 Clapper said it “would be a good thing" if the U.S. and Russia could find areas where the countries’ interests could “converge,” as has happened in the past, "but there’s a threshold of behavior that’s unacceptable." 
 
 In a series of tweets starting Jan. 3, Trump called an alleged delay in his briefing on the Russian hacks “very strange” and went on to quote an interview with fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who said on a Fox News opinion show this week that “a 14-year-old” could be responsible for computer breaches of Democratic Party offices last year. “Also said Russians did not give him the info!” Trump added in his posts. 
 
 Clapper and Rogers both said Assange had put U.S. lives in danger by publishing classified material on WikiLeaks in the past and shouldn’t be a credible source on the hacking issue. The intelligence community doesn’t have a “whole lot of respect for him,” Clapper said. When questioned if Trump’s comments are hurting morale among intelligence officers, Clapper said, “I hardly think it helps.” 
 
 Trump pushed back ahead of the hearing, saying on Twitter that “The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people...to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against ‘Intelligence’ when in fact I am a big fan!” 
 
 Obama’s Advice 
 
 President Barack Obama said in a television interview Thursday that “it’s going to be important to make sure the president and the intelligence communities are both working on the best possible information.” 
 
 “My hope is that when the president-elect receives his own briefings and is able to examine the intelligence as his team has put together and they see how professional and effective these agencies are, that some of those current tensions will be reduced,” Obama told WMAQ-TV in Chicago. 
 
 Ultimately, even if Trump doesn’t trust the intelligence agencies’ judgment on Russia, he will need their help to understand other foreign policy issues and cybersecurity threats, including from China, Iran and North Korea, Beau Woods, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative in Washington, said in interview. 
 
 ‘Unhelpful’ 
 
 “The conclusion of the intelligence community was that they like skepticism -- they’re in the business of being skeptics themselves,” Woods said. “However, to out-of-hand dismiss or disparage the intelligence that comes out of their processes, it’s unhelpful for finding the truth.” 
 
 At the start of the hearing, McCain, the committee’s chairman, called Russia’s hacking an "unprecedented attack" on U.S. democracy. He said "every American should be alarmed" by Russia’s attack. 
 
 In prepared remarks, the intelligence officials said Moscow “poses a major threat” to U.S. government, military, diplomatic, commercial and critical infrastructure networks. They also said Russia has developed a “highly advanced offensive cyber program.” 
 
 “Looking forward, Russian cyber operations will likely target the United States to gather intelligence, support Russian decision-making, conduct influence operations to support Russian military and political objectives, and prepare the cyber environment for future contingencies,” their statement said. 
 
 Public Disclosure 
 
 Clapper told the Senate panel that intelligence officials plan to brief Congress behind closed doors and release an unclassified version of their review to the public early next week. Although there are some sensitive sources and methods, he said he intends to “push the envelope as much as I can,” he said. 
 
 “The public should know as much as possible,” said Clapper, who described himself as “apolitical.” “We’ll be as forthcoming as we can.” 
 
 The White House already has the intelligence review, which Obama ordered be completed before he leaves office, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday. 
 
 “Men and women of the U.S. intelligence community are patriots. They’re experts. They’re dedicated to getting the facts right,” Earnest said. 
 
 After the hearing, Trump again took to Twitter, suggesting that the intelligence community’s report had been politicized after NBC News on Thursday night reported that it detailed attacks not only against the DNC, but the White House, State Department and Joint Chiefs of Staff. 
 
 "Who gave them this report and why? Politics!" Trump tweeted. 
 
 Trump went on to claim the DNC would "not allow the FBI to study or see its computer info after it was supposedly hacked by Russia." The tweet appeared to be a reference to a BuzzFeed story that revealed the FBI had relied on analysis by CrowdStrike, a third-party cyber security company. 
 
 The FBI Thursday night confirmed that DNC officials rebuffed requests for direct access to the servers, forcing agents to rely on the third-party source. 
 
 ‘Aggressive’ Posture 
 
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 In recent years, the intelligence officials said in their statement, the Kremlin has assumed a more “aggressive cyber posture,” targeting government organizations, critical infrastructure, think tanks, universities, political organizations and corporations, often using phishing campaigns that give attackers access to computer networks. In some cases, Russian intelligence actors have “masqueraded as third parties” with false online identities to confuse the source of the hacking, they said. 
 
 The intelligence community and Cyber Command continue “hardening” internal U.S. government systems, the officials said. Still, as of late 2016, more than 30 nations are developing offensive cyber attack capabilities, the officials said in the statement. Terrorist groups are also using the internet to collect intelligence and incite action, such as Islamic State continuing to “seek opportunities to target and release sensitive information” about U.S. citizens. ||||| The release of the contentious memo by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee on Friday underscored the partisan firestorm swirling around the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. 
 
 President Trump Donald John TrumpBaldwin returns to 'SNL' as Trump and admits presidency is just 'a four- year cash grab' Maxine Waters: Republicans 'intimidated' by Trump Trump: Pruitt 'doing a great job' MORE declared Saturday that the memo, which alleges abuses by the FBI and Justice Department in obtaining a surveillance order on a former Trump campaign adviser, "totally vindicates" him in the Russia probe. 
 
 But Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee argue that the document fails to disclose the full scope of the Justice Department's warrant application and intentionally omits facts that would put the matter in the proper context. 
 
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 They're pushing to release their own memo on the subject — a rebuttal they say would reveal the partisan nature of the GOP document and knock down allegations that FBI and Justice Department officials acted inappropriately. 
 
 The GOP memo alleges that federal law enforcement officials relied heavily on a controversial opposition research dossier in their application for a warrant to surveil Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. 
 
 According to the memo, the Justice Department failed to disclose that the research contained in the dossier was financed by political sources, and that its author, a former British intelligence agent, was biased against Trump. 
 
 Now, House Intelligence Committee members from both sides of the aisle are set to take to the Sunday morning news shows to discuss the GOP memo and the future of the Russia investigation. 
 
 On the Democratic side, Rep. Adam Schiff Adam Bennett SchiffThe Daily Beast sues Justice Department for records on Nunes memo Overnight Tech: Latest on shooting at YouTube | Facebook deletes more Russian accounts | Trump keeps up attack on Amazon | Senators press Grindr on privacy Gowdy: Congressional investigators ‘leak like the Gossip Girls’ MORE (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the Intelligence panel, will appear on ABC's "This Week." Two other Intelligence Committee Democrats, Reps. Eric Swalwell Eric Michael SwalwellMarch for Our Lives to leave empty seats for lawmakers at town halls Dem rep: Trump congratulating Putin is 'like congratulating the Harlem Globetrotters' Dem lawmaker: McCabe's firing part of conspiracy to undermine Mueller MORE (Calif.) and Jim Himes James (Jim) Andres HimesOvernight Cybersecurity: House Intel votes to release Russia report | House lawmakers demand Zuckerberg testify | Senators unveil updated election cyber bill House Intel votes to release report in Russia probe Intel Dem: 'Putin thanks his lucky stars' for Trump's attacks on FBI MORE (Conn.), are set to go on "Fox News Sunday" and CNN's "State of the Union" respectively. 
 
 At the same time, Rep. Trey Gowdy Harold (Trey) Watson GowdyOversight chairman probes Pruitt's -a-night condo deal DOJ agrees to allow 'extraordinary' access to FISA applications Gowdy: 'I don't have a lot to show for the last seven years' in Congress MORE (R-S.C.) will be on CBS's "Face the Nation," Rep. Chris Stewart Christopher (Chris) Douglas StewartGOP rep: Probably time for more regulation on Facebook GOP rep: We’re going to show the CIA ‘got it wrong’ on Russia trying to help Trump Utah GOP wrestles with party purity MORE (R-Utah) will be on "Fox News Sunday," Rep. Brad Wenstrup Brad Robert WenstrupThe Memo: Trump doubles down amid some GOP doubts Lawmakers dispute ‘vindication’ for Trump in Intel memo House Intelligence Dem: Use of Steele dossier in FISA application 'small and insignificant' MORE (R-Ohio) will be on "State of the Union" and Rep. Will Hurd William Ballard HurdProposal to use Pentagon funds for border wall is ill advised DCCC adds first black candidates to list of top candidates Overnight Cybersecurity: Trump-linked data firm Cambridge Analytica attracts scrutiny | House passes cyber response team bill | What to know about Russian cyberattacks on energy grid MORE (R-Texas) will be on "This Week." All are members of the House Intelligence Committee. 
 
 Here's the full lineup: 
 
 NBC's "Meet the Press": Reince Priebus Reinhold (Reince) Richard PriebusKudlow jokes he’s ‘gotta beat’ Scaramucci's White House tenure The Memo: Kelly said to be losing influence with Trump Trump’s zeal for administration firings denigrates public servants MORE, Trump's former chief of staff, will be on the show. Former CIA Director John Brennan John Owen BrennanBrennan rips Trump: 'Your self adoration is disgraceful' Ex-CIA chief: Trump’s VA nominee will hurt our veterans Rand Paul live tweets his reading of spending bill MORE will appear, as well. 
 
 "Fox News Sunday": Stewart and Swalwell will both make appearances, as will Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and Defense secretary. 
 
 CBS's "Face the Nation": Gowdy will be on. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Health's infectious disease unit, will also make an appearance. 
 
 CNN's "State of the Union": Himes and Wenstrup will make appearances. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin Richard (Dick) Joseph DurbinTexas GOP lawmaker visits Venezuela to meet with Maduro Democrats question ICE standards for detaining pregnant women Overnight Finance: Markets freak then rally after dueling China, US tariffs | Private sector adds 241k jobs in March | Tech rivalries spill into Washington MORE (D-Ill.) and Rep. Karen Bass Karen Ruth BassDem rep on Trump tweet: ‘An embarrassment on the international stage’ Sunday Shows preview: Debate over memo takes spotlight in Washington Dem rips GOP lawmaker for calling for FBI 'purge': Maybe he needs a history lesson MORE (D-Calif.) will also be on the show. 
 
 ABC's "This Week": Schiff and Hurd are set to make appearances.
– The author of the explosive dossier dogging Donald Trump less than 10 days before his inauguration has been named as a former British intelligence officer—but the investigative firm he co-directs won't confirm or deny his involvement. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that the document was prepared by Christopher Steele, a former Russia expert in Britain's spy service who founded the Orbis Business Intelligence research firm in 2009. The New York Times, in a look at how the dossier came to light, reports that Steele was hired by Washington research firm Fusion GPS, which was hired by a wealthy GOP donor in the fall of 2015 to compile anti-Trump material. After Trump became the presumptive nominee, the GOP donor no longer needed the research firm's services, but wealthy Democratic donors stepped in, and Steele continued to send monthly memos detailing alleged Russian efforts to both compromise Trump and assist his campaign, per the Times' sources. In other coverage: The Guardian looks at John McCain's involvement, which apparently included clandestine efforts to obtain the dossier after hearing about it from a diplomat during a conference in Canada. "Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the director of the FBI," McCain said in a statement Wednesday. The AP reports that it has been unable to contact Steele. A neighbor of the former spy, who lives outside London, says Steele and his family are away and it's not clear when they will return. Intelligence chiefs are defending their decision to take the very unusual step of attaching a summary of the unverified dossier to last week's briefing on Russian hacking, the Washington Post reports. "Part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday. He said he spoke with Trump and expressed dismay at the "extremely corrosive" leaks in the press. Early Thursday, Trump tweeted that Clapper had called him "to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated." He added: "Made up, phony facts.Too bad!" Politico looks at how Democrats are dealing with Trump's Russia troubles. So far, senators have been more restrained than House members, some of whom have started referring to Trump as "Moscow Donald." The New York Times reports that Trump is facing a backlash from Jewish groups for wondering if we "are living in Nazi Germany" when he was criticizing intelligence agencies' handling of what he called "fake news." At the Intercept, Glenn Greenwald calls the dossier "farcical" and warns that this episode could backfire badly for Democratic operatives and others treating the dossier as gospel. He warns that if it is proved false, it will "forever discredit ... future journalistic exposés that are based on actual, corroborated wrongdoing."