This post has been updated.
Donald Trump on Tuesday night claimed that his planned briefing with intelligence officials on cyber attacks carried out by Russians was delayed until Friday and attempted to cast doubt on the intelligence community’s conclusion about the hacking.
The “Intelligence” briefing on so-called “Russian hacking” was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
However, officials disputed that the briefing was delayed and told NBC News that the briefing was always planned for Friday.
Now: Senior US intelligence official tells NBC News briefing was “always” scheduled for Friday, Trump incorrect, per @KenDilanianNBC https://t.co/hBP1lJln6W
— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) January 4, 2017
This was always planned for Friday say agency sources increasingly upset by Trump teeets https://t.co/Bj59GxXImQ
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) January 4, 2017
The New York Times also reported that the briefing had not been scheduled for Tuesday, citing senior administration officials.
Later Wednesday morning, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on a conference call that the Trump team asked for a briefing to take place early this week but that intelligence officials asked for the meeting to take place on Friday.
“Last week, the President-elect’s team asked for an update that would occur early this week with respect to that subject,” Spicer said. “We were later asked to postpone that briefing because the final report that the intelligence community is going to issue is not going to be finalized until later this week and they asked that we defer that briefing until they had had the report finalized.”
Trump has dismissed the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russian actors were behind the hacks into Democratic groups and that the cyber attacks were carried out in an attempt to influence the 2016 election. He repeated his skepticism in a tweet early Wednesday morning, citing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s claim that he did not receive leaked emails from Russia.
Julian Assange said “a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta” – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
Esme Cribb contributed reporting.
