ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Donald Trump hit back today at sensational claims that a former MI6 officer had uncovered a potential blackmail plot by Russia against him.

The president-elect flatly dismissed the extraordinary allegations that Moscow had a dossier on him including in a compromising situation with prostitutes at a top hotel in the city.

Intelligence officers briefed the Republican and President Barack Obama about the contents of the document last week.

After reports emerged on US broadcasters, the billionaire tweeted: “FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!”

The Kremlin also denied that it had any compromising material on Mr Trump.

But the row threatens to overshadow Mr Trump taking office in just nine days’ time.

He was due to hold a press conference today at which he would almost certainly be asked about the bombshell allegations.

It came as Mr Obama gave his final farewell speech as president.

Two US officials said classified documents that the heads of four US intelligence agencies presented last week to Mr Trump and Barack Obama included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him.

The allegations, which one called “still unsubstantiated,” were said to be contained in a two-page memo appended to a report on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other US agencies were said to be continuing to investigate the credibility and accuracy of the claims.

The Buzzfeed website published what they claimed was a 35-page memo, with lurid details of alleged “perverted conduct” by Mr Trump in 2013 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Moscow, though it admitted that the claims may be false.

The incident was said to have taken place in the same suite where President Obama previously stayed during a visit to Russia.

There were also claims about Mr Trump at parties in St Petersburg.

One of the US official said investigators so far have been unable to confirm the material about Mr Trump’s alleged financial and personal entanglements with Russian businessmen and others whom US intelligence analysts have concluded are Russian intelligence officers or working on behalf of Russian intelligence.

Some material in the reports produced by the former British intelligence officer has proved to be erroneous, the official said, though most of his past work is considered to be credible.

The unnamed spy was reportedly stationed in Russia in the 1990s but now runs a private intelligence firm.

The charges that Russia attempted to compromise New York real estate businessman Mr Trump were presented to the FBI and other US government officials last summer and have been circulating for months.

The classified briefings last week were presented to Mr Obama and Mr Trump by Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers.

US intelligence chiefs included a classified summary of the material to make Mr Trump aware that it is circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress, government officials and others, one of the officials said.

An unclassified intelligence report released on Friday concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to help Mr Trump’s electoral chances by discrediting Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign, a claim denied by Moscow.

The report said US intelligence agencies have concluded that as part of the effort Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, used intermediaries such as WikiLeaks and others to release emails it hacked from the Democratic National Committee and top Democrats.

The Kremlin said the claims that it had a dossier on Mr Trump in embarrassing situations was “total nonsense.”

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a hoax which had been dreamt up to further harm US-Russia relations,

Kellyanne Conway, a top Trump aide, also dismissed the allegations last night, saying they came from “unnamed sources”.