Watch : Trump lashes out at journalist for asking 'disgraceful' question
United States President Donald Trump angrily lashes out at a reporter over allegations of working for Moscow.
"I never worked for Russia," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the WHite House on Monday. "It's a disgrace that you even ask that question. It's all a big fat hoax."
The heated response came after a journalist asked the president for comment about allegations originally put forward by a New York Times article on Friday.
The article, citing anonymous inside sources, claimed that US law enforcement officials became so concerned by Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey in 2017 that they started investigating whether he had been working for Moscow against American interests.
Comey was overseeing an ongoing federal investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections and whether Trump’s campaign had colluded with Moscow.
Citing a private testimony made by former FBI lawyer Lisa Page to the House of Representatives, the NYT article further claimed that Trump was under investigation for knowingly or unwittingly falling for a Russian campaign "to disrupt the Western alliance."
“That’s the goal, to make us less of a moral authority to spread democratic values,” said Page.
On Sunday, renowned Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein revealed more details about the probe, suggesting that a draft report on the ongoing investigation had concluded that Trump had played a part in Russian attempts at "destabilizing" the US.
.@carlbernstein: “This is about the most serious counterintelligence people we have in the US government saying, ‘Oh my god, the President’s words and actions lead us to conclude that somehow he has become a witting, unwitting or half-witting pawn...to Vladimir Putin.'” pic.twitter.com/QOSdJPsJN5
— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) January 13, 2019
It unclear, however, why FBI sources have been leaking such revelations to the press in recent days.
Speaking on Sunday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham questioned the motives behind the timely revelations.
“That story came from somebody who leaked it with an agenda,” said Graham before adding that the report “tells me a lot about the people running the FBI.”
Speaking to The Hill, former FBI assistant director of intelligence Kevin Brock claimed that the leaked revelations demonstrated that some bureau employees were operating outside standard Department of Justice guidelines.
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