McCain: Leak of Trump dossier ‘totally wrong’

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says the leak of an unverified dossier claiming Russia has compromising information about Donald Trump is unfair to the president-elect.

“The president-elect has a point,” McCain said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.”

“The fact that this un-validated document, to say the least, was leaked — it’s somebody’s responsibility,” said McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

“The very fact that it was leaked, one, is a commentary on this town,” he said. “Second, [it is] totally wrong to have that out.”

{mosads}“[It is] an un-validated document that is damning out there among the American public without any validation whatsoever. And so it’s harmful to the president of the United States.”

McCain also criticized Trump and outgoing CIA Director John Brennan for arguing about the controversial document’s public dissemination.

“I don’t think it was his role to do so,” he said of Brennan openly criticizing Trump. “The president-elect — I didn’t like his language that he used.”

When asked if Brennan’s departure would improve Trump’s ties with the intelligence community, McCain responded, “I hope so.”

“Obviously our intelligence agencies, especially the CIA, are very important aspects of our ability to confront the very serious and daunting challenges that are the legacy of the outgoing Obama administration. The world’s on fire.”

Brennan on Monday denied any role in leaking the dossier about Trump, adding he dislikes the president-elect’s treatment of U.S. intelligence forces.

“Was I a leaker of this? No,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “I think it’s the right and indeed the responsibility of the president of the United States to challenge the conclusions of the intelligence community. It’s where there are allegations made about leaking or about dishonesty or a lack of integrity, that’s where I think the line is crossed.”

Trump on Sunday tweeted about Brennan, publicly questioning whether the departing CIA chief was “the leaker of fake news.”

CNN and other media outlets reported earlier this month that intelligence agencies briefed Trump on a dossier alleging Russia possessed compromising financial and personal information about him.

The document, published in full by BuzzFeed, also claimed that people close to Trump remained in close contact with Moscow during the 2016 presidential race.