American intelligence reportedly discovered that Russia was confident it "had the ability to influence the [Trump] administration through ... derogatory information," people familiar with the intelligence told CNN. The Russian conversations, intercepted during the 2016 campaign, reportedly referred to incriminating financial information that could have been used to sway Trump or his close inner circle, CNN adds.

But the sources, privy to the descriptions of the communications written by U.S. intelligence, cautioned the Russian claims to one another "could have been exaggerated or even made up" as part of a disinformation campaign that the Russians did during the election. The details of the communication shed new light on information U.S. intelligence received about Russian claims of influence. The contents of the conversations made clear to U.S. officials that Russia was considering ways to influence the election — even if their claims turned out to be false. [CNN]

"This is yet another round of false and unverified claims made by anonymous sources to smear the president," the White House said in a statement. "The reality is, a review of the president's income from the last ten years showed he had virtually no financial ties at all."

The review of Trump's income was done by his paid lawyers, and is not transparent or verifiable because Trump has refused to release his tax returns. An unverified dossier composed by former British spy Christopher Steele also echoed beliefs that Russia held incriminating information about Trump and his inner circle, and could use it to blackmail the administration. Jeva Lange