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." 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. 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." 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. He wrote: "Assange... said Russians did not give him the info!"  Image copyright AP 
 
 President-elect Donald Trump has backed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in casting doubt on intelligence alleging Russian meddling in the US election. 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. 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. The president-elect has repeatedly refused to accept the conclusions of the US intelligence community. 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." "Once again I reject any possibility that official Russia can be involved in any way," he added.
– 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.)