Vice President Joe Biden confirmed in a new interview that he and President Barack Obama were briefed on the unsubstantiated report about Donald Trump.
Biden, 74, told the Associated Press on Thursday, January 12, that intelligence officials gave him and POTUS, 55, a rundown on the 35-page unverified dossier, which was published in full by BuzzFeed this week and contains several uncorroborated claims about the ex–Celebrity Apprentice host, 70, and his alleged involvement with the Russian government. Trump has repeatedly denied all of the allegations.
“I think it’s something that obviously the agency thinks they have to track down,” Biden told the AP. “It surprised me in that it made it to the point where the agency, the FBI thought they had to pursue it.”
The VP also told the AP that “no conclusions” were drawn from the briefing, given by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and others. “As a matter of fact, the president was like, ‘What does this have anything to do with anything?'” Biden said, adding: “Neither the president nor I asked for any detail.” He noted, though, that he had “read everything.”
The president-elect took to Twitter on Thursday to let his followers know that he had also spoken to Clapper, 75, about the report.
“James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated,” the real estate mogul — who will be sworn into office as the 45th POTUS on Friday, January 20 — wrote. “Made up, phony facts. Too bad!”
