Biden: Intel officials warned us of Trump dossier

Vice President Biden says top intelligence officers briefed him and President Obama about unverified claims regarding President-elect Donald Trump and Russia.

“It’s something that obviously the agency thinks they have to track down,” he told The Associated Press Thursday, referring to the dossier of salacious, uncorroborated claims about Trump.

Biden told the AP that intelligence officials worried the allegations might become public, and that he and Obama were startled by the alleged information about the president-elect.

{mosads}“[I’m surprised it] made it to the point where the agency, the FBI thought they had to pursue it,” said Biden, who endorsed 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over Trump.

Biden noted neither he nor Obama sought more details about the report, which has dominated global news this week.

In an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Biden said the Intelligence Community felt obligated to include a two-page summary of the dossier’s claims in its classified report on Russian attempts to interfere with the election. 

When asked if it was a mistake to include the addendum, which claims that Moscow has compromising information about Trump and that Trump aides and Russian intermediaries have been in contact, Biden responded: 

“We asked that question, and their argument was that this is something that the press already had, not just here in the United States, but other places, that … it was their job to inform not only us but the president-elect that this was out there so it didn’t come out of the blue.”