In recent days, two intelligence dossiers have been published making sensational charges involving President-elect Donald J. Trump and the 2016 election. Although they will be lumped together in the public mind, in truth they are as different as chalk and cheese.

The first of these reports, published last week, was an unclassified version of a United States intelligence community assessment that concluded with “high confidence” that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had ordered an “influence campaign” aimed at the presidential election, and that his goals included damaging Hillary Clinton and electing Mr. Trump. All intelligence contains an element of uncertainty, but this is as good as it gets: a judgment corroborated by the F.B.I., C.I.A. and National Security Agency based on human intelligence, electronic intercepts and forensic investigation into the hacks of the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party officials.

The second report — dumped on the internet by BuzzFeed News on Tuesday — is a very different animal. As BuzzFeed wrote, “The document was prepared for political opponents of Trump by a person who is understood to be a former British intelligence agent” — now identified as Christopher Steele — and its allegations are “unverified.” If true, the claims in the BuzzFeed dossier are sensational, including extensive contacts between Trump aides and Russian operatives and the Russian accumulation of dirt on Mr. Trump to be used for blackmail.

But are they true? No one knows. This could either be a Watergate-style scandal that engulfs the Trump presidency or a “Hitler Diaries”-style hoax, or anything in between.