President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a news cenference at Trump Tower on January 11, 2017 in New York City. This is Trump's first official news conference since the November elections. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The information in an explosive document that claims Donald Trump was groomed by Russia was made up by online forum 4chan, it has been claimed.

The documents allege secret contact between the Trump campaign and Moscow for at least five years and alleged information involving Mr Trump and prostitutes. The allegations were included in a series of memos compiled by the supposed ex-operative initially as opposition research on Mr Trump. Mr Trump has vehemently denied all allegations calling the release "fake news" and a "political witch hunt".

They claims were made public hours after news reports that Trump had been briefed by intelligence officials about the existence of the dossier on him by the US website BuzzFeed, which published the document in full.

It published despite its editor noting that there is reason to doubt the truth of them.

The document is said to have been prepared by political opponents of Mr Trump, and was put together by someone who is thought to be a former spy.

But two of the internet forums most prominently involved in supporting Donald Trump now claim that they fabricated the stories found in the document.

Users of both 4chan and Reddit forum r/The_Donald have suggested that they planted the document as a fake.

Users in particular point to a post apparently suggesting that a 4chan user had passed on false information to journalist Rick Wilson and that it was now being published.

“So they took what I told Rick Wilson and added a Russian spy angle to it,” the 4chan user posted on 1 November, a week before the election and long before the document was posted online.

“They still believe it. Guys, they're truly f***ing desperate - there's no remaining Trump scandal that's credible.”

Another post included a person claiming that they had convinced journalists on Twitter that there would be “an October surprise on Trump this Friday”.

Twitter user Nick Rochfort @trsprudence claims he was responsible for the creating what he called 'fan fiction' that ended up with the CIA.

Mom come quick my fan fiction got puplished by the CIA. — Nick Rochfort (@trsprudence) January 11, 2017

Reddit user DeplorableMe1 posted on r/The_Donald claims to have been in contact with Mr Rochfort and made a post outlining what he claims to have happened.

DeplorableMe1 wrote: "@trsprudence created le dossier in a document which was actually formatted based on FBI declassified intelligence reports (hence it looked a lot better, less amateurish) which contained much of the information which was eventually released in the reports, but not all of it: namely the FSB Russian intelligence mentions were not originally conceived by Prudence.

"Anyway, he made these documents which the help of his flatmate while he was studying overseas, as they were purely intended to troll the media: he sent it several personalities, including Rick Wilson, Shapiro etc.

"So, what appears to have happened is that much of the information in the Buzzfeed report has been fabricated, received from this original troll report which @trsprudence crafted in a highly legitimate form (resembling declassified reports) which somehow made it's way into this Buzzfeed dossier prepared by the M16 agent. (Was the deceptively well-formatted information passed around media/intel circles after being initially submitted to journalists?)."

If the claims are true, it would effectively mean that 4chan trolled the US intelligence system and many media outlets around the world.

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Expand Close 4chan was first set up in 2003 but has since become an online cultural phenomenon - home to creative jokers but also malicious hackers / Facebook

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Whatsapp 4chan was first set up in 2003 but has since become an online cultural phenomenon - home to creative jokers but also malicious hackers

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Mr Wilson has dismissed the claims, writing that he neither got information from 4chan users nor was he the source for the document published by BuzzFeed.

“You’re wrong if you believe 1. What we had came from [4chan forum] /pol 2. That I was Buzzfeed’s source,” he tweeted. “Try again, boys.”

He sent another tweet claiming the “information was out there looooong before the 4chan posts”.

Mr Wilson has been disliked by 4chan users since he mocked them during a TV appearance, describing them as “childless single men who masturbate to anime”.

Whether or not the stories were invented by 4chan, many of the claims in the document are demonstrably untrue, a point that BuzzFeed made while still opting to publish the document. The report misspells the name of one central company, for instance, and makes untrue claims about a specific area outside Moscow.

The dossier also alleges that Michael Cohen, , an attorney for the president-elect, met secretly with Kremlin officials in Prague in August 2016. However Mr Cohen has said he has never been to Prague.

“I’m telling you emphatically that I’ve not been to Prague, I’ve never been to Czech [Republic], I’ve not been to Russia,” Cohen said. “The story is completely inaccurate, it is fake news meant to malign Mr. Trump.”

US President-elect Donald Trump has said the director of national intelligence "denounced" the document.

Mr Trump tweeted: "James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated. Made up, phony facts. Too bad!"

Mr Clapper said late on Wednesday that he had called Mr Trump to say that the intelligence community made no judgment on the credibility of the claims in the document and lamented that it had been made public.

He also said he told Mr Trump that he does not believe the "leaks" came from inside the intelligence community.

Press conference

On Thursday at his first press conference since winning November's presidential election, Mr Trump thanked media organisations which held back from publishing details from the dossier, which has reportedly been circulating in Washington for some time.

"It is all fake news. It is phoney stuff. It didn't happen and it was gotten by opponents of ours," he said.

"It was a group of opponents who got together - sick people - and they put that crap together. Somebody released it. It shouldn't have even entered paper but it should never have even been released. I read what was released and I think it was a disgrace."

Mr Trump said he believed Russia's claim that it did not gather compromising information about him, claiming Moscow would have published whatever it held.

"President Putin and Russia put out a statement today that this fake news was indeed fake news, they said it totally never happened," the controversial tycoon said.

"Somebody would say 'oh of course he's going to say that' - I respected the fact that he said that.

"And I'll be honest - I think if he did have something they would have released it, they would have been glad to release it."

The President-elect also indicated that he thought the alleged hacking of his defeated Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton's emails had uncovered information that was in the public interest.

"Hacking is bad and it shouldn't be done but look at the things that were hacked, look at what was learned from that hacking - that Hillary Clinton got the questions to the debate and didn't report it, that's a horrible thing, that's a horrible thing," Mr Trump said.

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"Can you imagine if Donald Trump got the questions to the debate?

"It would have been the biggest story in the history of stories and they would have said immediately 'you have to get out of the race' - nobody even talked about it, that's a very terrible thing."

Mr Trump said that while he believed Russia had been involved in cyber hacking against the US "other countries and other people" had also been involved.

He said the Democratic National Committee's computer - which was hacked during the election campaign - had been "totally open to be hacked".

"They did a very poor job. They could have had hacking defence which we had," he said.

"They tried to hack the Republican National Committee and they were unable to break through. We have to do that for our country. It is very important."

"Not you!" This is the moment President-elect Trump told off a CNN journalist for being rude. pic.twitter.com/nqSlCM3s5M — BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) January 11, 2017

'Germaphobe'

Referring to the allegations contained in the dossier, the President-elect told reporters he was a "germophobe".

"Does anyone really believe that story?" he said. "I'm also very much of a germophobe by the way, believe me."

The Republican said he when he travels outside the US, he is "extremely careful".

"I'm surrounded by bodyguards, I'm surround by people and I always tell them ... if I am leaving this country, be very careful because in your hotel rooms and no matter where you go, you are probably going to have cameras.

"I'm not referring just to Russia, but I would certainly put them in that category.

"And, number one, I hope you are going to be good anyway but in those rooms you have cameras in the strangest places, cameras that are so small with modern technology you can't see them and you won't know.

"You'd better be careful or you will be watching yourself on nightly television."

'Good relations with Russia would be an asset'

Good relations with President Putin would be an "asset" and he hopes they "get along", he said.

"If Putin likes Donald Trump I consider that an asset, not a liability because we have a horrible relationship with Russia," he said.

"Russia can help us fight Isis, which, by the way, is number one tricky.

"If you look, this administration created Isis by leaving at the wrong time."

He added: "I don't know that I'm going to get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope I do, but there's a good chance I won't.

"And, if I don't, do you honestly believe Hillary would be tougher on Putin than me? Does anybody in this room honestly believe that? Give me a break."

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The information was included as an annex to a classified version of the report prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election, according to CNN.

After news reports were published about the documents, President-elect Trump tweeted: "Fake news - a total political witch hunt."

FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017

WikiLeaks has a 100% record of accurate authentication. We do not endorse Buzzfeed's publication of a document which is clearly bogus. — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 11, 2017

Moscow said the dossier was a fabrication and a “total bluff.”

“The Kremlin has no compromising information on Trump. This report does not correspond to reality and is nothing but an absolute fiction,” the deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Wednesday.

Mr Peskov said the allegations could be used to keep US politicians from wanting to improve ties with Russia.

“This is a total bluff, an absolute fabrication, complete nonsense. This is an evident attempt to harm our bilateral ties. The Kremlin does not engage in collecting compromising information."

Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to "leak" into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017

"We should treat it with humour, but there is a sad side to it, too," he said.

"There are people who are whipping up this frenzy, who are doing their best to keep this witch hunt going."

Our intelligence literally got trolled by 4chan. And the news media published it. No credibility left. #GoldenShowers — Tennessee GOP (@TEN_GOP) January 11, 2017

WikiLeaks also dismissed the report on Buzzfeed's website as 'bogus'. The whistleblowing website tweeted: "WikiLeaks has a 100% record of accurate authentication. We do not endorse Buzzfeed's publication of a document which is clearly bogus."

Dear MSM,



Not even 4chan takes 4chan seriously. You need an intervention.



Signed,



The entire god damn planet.#GoldenShowers — Julian Wan (@juliangwan) January 11, 2017

Earlier this week Julian Assange denounced last week's US intelligence report on alleged Russian hacking, calling it a politically-motivated "press release" that provided no evidence.

In an online news conference (audio below), the WikiLeaks founder and editor said the report is vague and that US intelligence officials should be embarrassed by the 25-page, declassified document.

"This is a press release," he said. "It is clearly designed for political effects."

LIVE WikiLeaks press conf responding to CIA report on US election. Tweet your question with #AskWL affixed! https://t.co/F7HX96WgLk — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 9, 2017

The report accuses Russia of trying to interfere with the US political process, with actions that included hacking into the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and individual Democrats like Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta.

The report said Russia also used state-funded propaganda and paid "trolls" to make nasty comments on social media services, although there was no suggestion Russia affected the actual vote count.

This is NOT journalism, it is simply irresponsible. Please don't EVER include me in your definition of "reporter"... https://t.co/pRc5gQLnTl — Kacey Montoya (@kaceymontoya) January 11, 2017

The report, for the first time, explicitly tied Russia President Vladimir Putin to the allegations. It called Russian activities the "boldest effort yet" to influence a US election, and said the Russian government provided emails to WikiLeaks - something Mr Assange denied again on Monday.

The report said Russian intelligence agencies gave leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks, which then released them to the public.

"As we have already stated, WikiLeaks' sources with relation to the John Podesta and DNC leaks are not state parties," Mr Assange said. "They do not come from the Russian government."

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The report lacked details about how the US learned what it says it knows, such as any intercepted conversations or electronic messages from Russian leaders, including Mr Putin, or about specific hacker techniques or digital tools the US may have traced back to Russia in its investigations.

A still-classified version of the report was shared late last week with President Barack Obama, incoming president Donald Trump, and top politicians in Congress.

In Moscow on Monday, Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the Kremlin still believes the accusations made in the report have no substance.

"They are amateurish and are hardly worthy of the high professional standards of top intelligence agencies," he said.

"We categorically rule out the possibility that Russian officials or official bodies could have been involved. We are tired of such accusations. This is beginning to remind us of a full-fledged witch-hunt."

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Margarita Simonyan, the editor of the TV channel RT that is frequently mentioned in the US report, said in a weekend blog post: "Dear CIA: You get a total F for this thing you wrote.

"You don't cover the subject sufficiently, the sources are unnamed, out of date or simply incorrect, and it is written like a school homework assignment."

Editor of Defense and Foreign Affairs Gregory Copley said: "This is a highly politically motivated and a subjective report which was issued by the intelligence community. And it is not surprising that it rushed to this report whilst the Obama administration is still in office because there was no question that it was politically induced this report"

"The report does not present evidence of successful or even an attempt to actually actively manipulate the election process. The question is, did the Obama administration, did the failed candidacy of Hillary Clinton, seek to blame the Russian government for the failure of Democrats to win the election? Almost certainly!

"If the Russian government was itself trying to influence the election then it did a very poor job of doing it because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote."

WikiLeaks published more than 19,000 internal emails from the DNC, days before the Democratic convention was starting.

In one thread of correspondence from August 2014 Mrs Clinton sent an eight-point plan to John Podesta, at the time a counsellor to President Barack Obama, outlining a strategy on how to defeat terror group Isis which involved supporting Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq with military advisers.

The Obama administration ended up taking similar action to that described as desirable by Mrs Clinton. The exchange also showed the presidential candidate identify the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia and Qatar as “clandestine” “financial and logistic” supporters of the terrorist group Isis. Both countries have donated to the Clinton Foundation.

“While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [Isis] and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” Clinton reportedly wrote.

“This effort will be enhanced by the stepped up commitment in the [Kurdish Regional Government]. The Qataris and Saudis will be put in a position of balancing policy between their ongoing competition to dominate the Sunni world and the consequences of serious US pressure.”

The emails also showed DNC staffers actively supporting Mrs Clinton when they were publicly promising to remain neutral during the primary elections between Mrs Clinton and her then-rival for the candidacy, Bernie Sanders.

The head of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned over the disclosures.

CNN also severed ties with Donna Brazile, a paid commentator and a top DNC official, after leaked emails revealed she shared debate questions with Clinton’s campaign.

Mr Trump said at the time that blaming Russia was deflecting attention from the embarrassing material contained in the emails - although he had previously challenged Russia to "find the 30,000 emails that are missing" from Mrs Clinton's private server.

In an interview with Sean Hannity last week, Mr Assange said: "Our publications had wide uptake by the American people, they're all true. But that's not the allegation that's being presented by the Obama White House.

"So, why such a dramatic response? Well, the reason is obvious. They're trying to delegitimise the Trump administration as it goes into the White House.

"They are trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate president."

Mr Assange denied the information from the emails was obtained by Russia.

He said: " Our source is not a state party, so the answer for our interactions is no.

"But if we look at our most recent statement from the US government, which is on December 29, OK, we had five different branches of government, Treasury, DHS, FBI, White House, presenting their accusations to underpin Obama's throwing out 29 Russian diplomats.

"What was missing from all of those statements? The word WikiLeaks. It's very strange."

Asked if he thought WikiLeaks had changed the course of the US election, Mr Assange told Fox News channel: " Who knows? It's impossible to tell.

"But if it did, the accusation is that the true statements of Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager, John Podesta, and the DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz, their true statements is what changed the election."

Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, who is a close associate of Assange, has already dismissed the CIA's claims that Russia was the source of the emails as "bulls***".

The accounts by Murray also contradict the story advanced by the CIA.

Mr Murray said: "I know who leaked them. I’ve met the person who leaked them, and they are certainly not Russian and it's an insider. It’s a leak, not a hack; the two are different things.

“If what the CIA are saying is true, and the CIA’s statement refers to people who are known to be linked to the Russian state, they would have arrested someone if it was someone inside the United States.

“America has not been shy about arresting whistleblowers and it’s not been shy about extraditing hackers. They plainly have no knowledge whatsoever.”

Mr Trump's inauguration as US President is due to take place on January 20.

Belfast Telegraph