© Sputnik Photo Agency / Reuter
Russia has denied that it has collected a dossier of compromising information on President-elect Donald Trump. A spokesman for President Vladimir Putin dismissed the allegations at a news conference Wednesday morning, saying, “The Kremlin has no compromising dossier on Trump, such information isn’t consistent with reality and is nothing but an absolute fantasy.” The spokesman added that news reports of the dossier were a “complete fabrication and utter nonsense.” The alleged dossier was the basis of an unverified and salacious 35-page U.S. intelligence document, a summary of which was presented to President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump last week, which includes allegations that Russian operatives sought to “exploit Trump’s personal obsessions and sexual perversion” to gain compromising material on him. The document, which has been circulating in media and government circles for months, was published by BuzzFeed News on Tuesday night, although the site admitted that many of the allegations had not been verified despite investigation. On Twitter, Trump reacted by denouncing the report as a “political witch hunt,” calling it “fake news.” The most explosive allegation is that Trump hired a “number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ [sic] (urination) show in front of him. The hotel was known to be under FSB [Russian intelligence] control with microphones and concealed cameras in all the main rooms to record anything they wanted to.” On Wednesday morning, Trump added, “Russia just said the unverified report paid for by political opponents is 'A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE.' Very unfair!”