Donald Trump dossier: President-elect says intelligence boss denounced dossier in phonecall
Video report by ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore
Donald Trump has said America's top intelligence official has denounced an alleged Russian dossier, which the president-elect described as "false and fictitious", in a phonecall.
Mr Trump tweeted the morning after his conversation with national intelligence director James Clapper on the dossier, which is reported to have been compiled by a former MI6 officer, while attacking CNN for publishing the file.
Trump had questioned whether US intelligence officials were responsible for the leak as he first hit out at the emergence of lurid claims against him.
Speaking at his first press conference as president-elect on Wednesday, he described unsubstantiated allegations that Russia obtained personal and financial information about him as "nonsense" and "fake news" and speculated about their sourcing.
Thanking media organisations that did not publish the dossier, Trump said: "They looked at that nonsense that was released by, maybe the intelligence agencies, who knows? Maybe the intelligence agencies which would be a tremendous blot on their record if they did that, a tremendous blot."
Mr Clapper later issued a statement saying he had told Trump the leak did not come from the government's intelligence community.
He said he told the president-elect that the US agencies had "not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable".
Clapper said he and Trump "both agreed (the leaks) are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security".
The report was published in Buzzfeed and included "unverifiable allegations of contact between Trump aides, Russian operatives, and graphic claims of sexual acts documented by the Russians".
Answering a question from ITV News Washington correspondent Robert Moore about the claims, Trump said: "Does anyone really believe that story?"
He added: "I'm also very much of a germophobe by the way, believe me."
Trump said that he was "extremely careful" when he travels to other countries, adding: "In your hotel rooms and no matter where you go, you will probably have cameras.
"In those rooms you have cameras in the strangest places... You better be careful or you'll be watching yourself on nightly television."
Before the news conference, Trump tweeted in response to the claims:
During the conference, he said media organisations who have published the claims will "suffer the consequences".
A dramatic exchange took place between the President-elect and a reporter from CNN after he refused to allow him a question.
"I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out," Trump added.
"And that's something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do."
Earlier, Trump's spokesman Sean Spicer described the claims as "irresponsible and outrageous".
He reiterated it was not an intelligence report and said that the publication of it was "shameful and disgraceful".
Vice President-elect Mike Pence said the publication of the document was "media bias" and an attempt to "demean the President-elect and the incoming administration".
"The American people are sick and tired of it," Pence added.
Trump said he believed Russia's claim that it did not gather compromising information about him, claiming Moscow would have published whatever it held.
"President Putin and Russia put out a statement today that this fake news was indeed fake news, they said it totally never happened," the tycoon said.
"And I'll be honest - I think if he did have something they would have released it, they would have been glad to release it."
He insisted that good relations with Russian president Vladimir Putin would be an "asset" for the country.
"If Putin likes Donald Trump I consider that an asset, not a liability because we have a horrible relationship with Russia," he said.
When asked about the hacking of the emails of his Democratic presidential opponent Hillary Clinton, he said it had uncovered information that was in the public interest.
"Hacking is bad and it shouldn't be done but look at the things that were hacked, look at what was learned from that hacking - that Hillary Clinton got the questions to the debate and didn't report it, that's a horrible thing, that's a horrible thing," Mr Trump said.
"Can you imagine if Donald Trump got the questions to the debate?
"It would have been the biggest story in the history of stories and they would have said immediately 'you have to get out of the race' - nobody even talked about it, that's a very terrible thing."
When asked about releasing his tax return, Trump said he would not as it was not of interest to the people and only the media.