Vice President Joe Biden told reporters Thursday that he and President Barack Obama were briefed last week by intelligence officials on uncorroborated negative information about President-elect Donald Trump's dealings with Russia.
"What does that have to do with anything?" CNN reported Biden telling reporters of his response to the findings in last Thursday's meeting. "Neither of us asked for any detail."
The information comprised a two-page dossier alleging that Trump campaign officials worked with President Vladimir Putin's government and claimed that Moscow had negative evidence of the president-elect's behavior in Russia and financial information that could be used for possible blackmail.
The classified document, prepared by a former British intelligence officer, was an addendum to a 35-page report on the Kremlin's hacking activities during the November election that was ordered by President Obama.
Trump was briefed on the report on Friday, after which it was then declassified.
Biden's office said that the vice president told reporters that intelligence officials felt the need to tell President Obama because they would be sharing the data with Trump.
The vice president also told reporters that he had read the full 35-page report.
On Wednesday, Trump slammed the unsubstantiated findings Wednesday as "fake news" — and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper later expressed "profound dismay" to the president-elect over the leak in a telephone conversation.
Clapper said late Wednesday that he had assured Trump that the dossier was "not a U.S. intelligence community product and that I do not believe the leaks came from within the intelligence community."
On Thursday, Trump continued his attacks on CNN, which first reported Tuesday that the dossier was included in the report, charging that the cable network was in "a total meltdown."
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