Donald Trump hasn’t given a press conference for 167 days, but this was some comeback appearance. The President-elect came out swinging, to put it mildly. Responding to sensational reports that Russian intelligence might have kompromat – a comprising piece of evidence, possibly a sex tape involving ‘golden showers’ – against him, Trump was angry, full of righteous indignation. He said that ‘sick people’ in the media had concocted the story. He called it ‘fake news’ and ‘garbage’. He suggested that, because he was a ‘germaphobe’ he was unlikely to have allowed prostitutes to do disgusting things to him in a Moscow hotel room.
The Trump-FSB kompromat story has been circling around major news organisations such as the BBC and the New York Times for months. According to some, it’s a sex tape; others say it is a financial scandal involving Russia. (We’ll soon be publishing an investigation by the Beeb’s Paul Wood, who has been following this for months.)
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