NEW YORK (AP) — Defiant and unyielding, President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday adamantly denied reports that Russia had obtained compromising personal and financial information about him, calling it a “tremendous blot” on the record of the intelligence community if it had released such material. Trump, due to hold his first news conference in nearly six months on Wednesday, pointed to the Kremlin’s denials of the reports on the dossier that emerged late on Tuesday, first reported by CNN. I saw the information, I read the information outside of that meeting,” he said, a reference to a classified briefing he received from intelligence leaders. “We are going to build a wall,” he said, adding that he didn’t want to wait a year and a half to finish negotiating how Mexico would pay for it. “It was gotten by opponents of ours.”

Asked about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump called it “an asset, not a liability” and an improvement over what he called America’s current “horrible relationship with Russia.”

“If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks, that’s called an asset not a liability. A thing like that should never have been written, it should never have been had and it certainly should have never been released.”

He reiterated that he doesn’t plan to release his tax returns, saying they are under audit and don’t include relevant information

The news conference follows exclusive reporting by CNN on Tuesday that classified documents presented last week to President Barack Obama and Trump included the allegations about Russia. The news conference, expected to begin at 11 am ET in midtown Manhattan, follows exclusive reporting by CNN on Tuesday that classified documents presented last week to President Barack Obama and Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN. Media outlets reported on the document late Tuesday and Trump denounced it on Twitter before his news conference as “fake news,” suggesting he was being persecuted for defeating other GOP presidential hopefuls and Democrat Hillary Clinton in the election. This press conference is not specifically billed to be about that, but Trump has not fully answered how he would do this, beyond tweeting that he'd hand off management to his sons. After initially declaring there was no law that prohibited him from maintaining control of his business while serving as president, Trump switched gears in December and said legal documents were being crafted “which take me completely out of business operations.”

Trump has said his two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, will manage his businesses and no new deals will be done during his time in office, but has offered few details. The Trump organization meanwhile will not enter into any new deals abroad and all domestic deals will be subject to a heavy vetting process.
President-elect of the United States Donald Trump holds his first post-election press conference in New York City.