Donald Trump took to Twitter to air his grievances, but may have said too much. (Getty)
Just 10 days before his inauguration, Donald Trump and his team were rocked by unverified allegations via Buzzfeed that a leaked intelligence document showed Russia had compromised the incoming President with potentially embarrassing personal and financial information. In characteristic fashion, Trump responded with a late-night-into-early-morning tweetstorm, beginning with a categorical denial:
FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!
An interestingly worded 4:48 a.m. tweet, however, has led to rampant Internet speculation that Trump inadvertently confirmed the authenticity of the leaked document:
Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to “leak” into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?
Trump’s suggestion that the document does indeed originate within the intelligence community and was leaked (or “leaked”) seems to imply, although it does not verify any of its individual claims, that the document at least has a veneer of authenticity. It’s important to note, though, that Trump used the description “fake news,” a term for completely fabricated stories that has morphed into a pejorative for subjectively bad journalism, suggesting that he does not actually believe the report’s authenticity. Moreover, the Trump campaign has openly requested that his Twitter feed not be taken literally:
The allegations are more lurid than previous investigations into Trump’s ties with Russia, positing both collusion (Trump representatives regularly met with Russian intelligence during the campaign) and blackmail (the Russian FSB has video of Trump engaging in “perverted” sex acts with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel). For their part, both Trump’s team and Russian President Vladimir Putin have repeatedly denied any cooperation, or connection of any kind, between the country and President.
The 32-page unverified dossier, published in its entirety by Buzzfeed, was authored by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, the Wall Street Journal reports. Steele, who has a solid reputation in the intelligence world, now runs a London-based intelligence firm.
