"These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," the Trump transition team said Friday. | Getty Trump team rejects intel agencies' claims of Russian meddling

Donald Trump is rejecting official assessments that Russia interfered with the U.S. election — reportedly to help him win the presidency — by comparing intelligence agencies' latest analyses to the past flawed claims that led to the Iraq war.

"These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," the Trump transition team said in a statement late Friday. "The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It's now time to move on and "Make America Great Again.'"


The Trump team's statement was issued shortly after The Washington Post reported that the CIA had determined in a secret assessment that the Russian government had interfered in this year's election not just to rattle confidence in the system but specifically to help Trump. The Post cited officials briefed on the matter.

The report came after the Obama administration announced it had requested that intelligence agencies produce a "deep dive" report on cyberattacks on the U.S. election system this year. Some 17 intelligence agencies had already determined that Russia played a role in the attacks — an assessment that Trump had already dismissed.

Trump's refusal to accept the assessments has caused waves in the intelligence community, where many were already worried about the level of trust the president will have in them.

His team's late Friday statement is unlikely to help. Supporters of the CIA in particular contend that the George W. Bush administration misrepresented the intelligence given to it about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. Trump's Electoral College margin of victory was not by an unusually large margin. He also lost the popular vote.

Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.