Incoming White House counselor Kellyanne Conway refused to say Thursday if President-elect Trump trusts a top intelligence official’s statement that the intelligence community didn’t leak a salacious document published earlier this week.
Conway told NBC Trump was happy to talk with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Wednesday when Clapper told him the intelligence community wasn’t responsible for leaking a 35-page unverified dossier alleging Trump and the Russian government worked together to defeat Hillary Clinton.
But when asked to say whether Trump believed Clapper, Conway said only Trump could give a definitive answer.
“Mr. Trump was very happy to receive that information from Mr. Clapper,” she said.
The report has been derided as “fake news” after BuzzFeed published it in full Tuesday evening. The outlet said it was releasing the document so the American people could decide if it was legitimate and if they should believe the information therein.
Conway emphasized there’s “no credibility and veracity to those documents” and criticized the intelligence community for talking to the media following briefings with Trump last week.
“The president-elect had a briefing by the four top intelligence officers last week … then no sooner do they have it than people are leaking information,” she said. “That’s dangerous stuff. Here we are, our hands are tied because we can’t discuss private sensitive information yet others are doing it.”
Conway also touched on the announcement of how Trump would separate himself from the Trump Organization, and criticized the director of the Office of Government Ethics for opposing Trump’s plan.
Walter Schaub, director of the office, said Trump wasn’t taking the necessary steps to comply with ethics regulations. Conway said that may have been a political attack.
“Those are some ethics people, I don’t know what their political motivations are, but many people, including legal experts, are very happy with what he’s doing here,” she said.
Conway repeatedly said Trump is making sacrifices to be president, and said the plan to put the company in the hands of his two adult sons is the right thing to do.
While all other presidents put their assets in a blind trust to be managed while they’re in office, Conway said that’s the wrong thing to focus on.
“People are looking at the wrong issue there when they think it has to be a blind trust,” she said.
She later accused people of automatically assuming every Trump move is a bad thing.
“Why always the presumptive negativity against Mr. Trump when he is trying to comply with the law and also satisfy any ethics concerns that people have?” she asked.
