CIA director on Trump dossier: ‘Was I a leaker of this? No.’

Getty Images

Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan brushed off Donald Trump’s personal criticism of him in a Monday evening interview but said the president-elect’s attacks on the intelligence community crossed a line.

“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,” Brennan told The Wall Street Journal.

“It’s when there are allegations made about leaking or about dishonesty or a lack of integrity, that’s where I think the line is crossed.”

{mosads}Last week, Trump tweeted that he feels like he is “living in Nazi Germany” after reports of an unverified dossier containing compromising information on him came to light.

Brennan fired back on Sunday, saying he takes “great umbrage with that” comparison.

“Tell the families of those 117 CIA officers who are forever memorialized on our wall of honor that their loved ones who gave their lives were akin to Nazis,” Brennan said Monday.

“Tell the CIA officers who are serving in harm’s way right now and their families who are worried about them that they are akin to Nazi Germany. I found that to be very repugnant, and I will forever stand up for the integrity and patriotism of my officers who have done much over the years to sacrifice for their fellow citizens.”

Brennan also responded to Trump’s tweet from late Sunday questioning if he’s the “leaker of Fake News.”

“Was I a leaker of this? No,” Brennan told the Journal.

“First of all, this is not intelligence community information,” he noted of the dossier published by BuzzFeed, which he said had been circulating for “many months.” The dossier was allegedly put together by a former British intelligence official as opposition research commissioned first by Republican political opponents of Trump and later by Democrats.

“I would have no interest in trying to give that dossier any additional airtime,” he said, but “there was an interest on the part of the bureau to make sure that the president-elect was aware of and informed of” it. 

Tags Donald Trump

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed..

Main Area Top ↴

ovp - video bin

Fiona Rene shares the unique way she gets into character while filming 'Tracker'

Fiona Rene shares the unique way she gets into ...
Taylor Krause says her 'brain geunuinely ...
Bethany Joy Lenz opens up about surviving a cult
Dafne Keen shares what it was like on the set of ...
Zoë Kravitz and Channing Tatum call of ...
Cedric Yarbrough talks about working with Clint ...
More Videos
Main Area Middle ↴
Main Area Bottom ↴

Most Popular

Load more

Video

See all Video