Obama says he hopes Trump will take intelligence on Russia ‘seriously’

by Nikita Vladimirov - 01/10/17 11:23 PM ET

President Obama on Tuesday declined to comment on the latest reports revealing unsubstantiated allegations that Russian intelligence gathered information to compromise President-elect Donald Trump, while adding that he hopes that Trump takes intel “seriously.”

CNN on Tuesday reported that the heads of the intelligence community briefed President Obama and the president-elect last week on allegations compiled by a former British intelligence officer that are reportedly making the rounds in intelligence circles. The briefing included a two-page synopsis of the former MI6 agent’s opposition research as an appendix to its main intelligence report on Russian meddling in the election.

The dossier alleges that Russians had obtained damaging personal and professional information about the president-elect and that Trump’s aides and Russian intermediaries had been in contact for years.

“You know I hadn’t seen the reports, we were on the plane together, and I hadn’t read the news since then and as a matter of principle and national security I don’t comment on classified information,” Obama said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt shortly after the news broke.

{mosads}The president recapped his request that the intelligence community launch an investigation into the alleged Russian interference in the election in order to “prevent it from happening again.”

“I ordered a report about Russia’s involvement in the hacking of the [Democratic National Committee] and passing on that information to WikiLeaks, because I felt it was important now that the election was over for everybody to understand exactly what happened in order to prevent it from happening again,” Obama said.

Obama also expressed hope that the investigation into Russia’s alleged interference, namely hacking and propaganda, would continue after he leaves office and that the president-elect takes the intelligence reports “seriously.”

“And my expectation and my hope is that this work will continue after I leave; that Congress in possession of both the classified and unclassified reports, that the president elect and his administration — in possession of both the classified and unclassified reports — will take it seriously and now get to work reinforcing those mechanisms that we can use to protect our democracy,” he said.

Tags Donald Trump