NEW White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said on CNN’s State of the Union overnight that US president Donald Trump still doesn’t accept the US intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia tried to influence the 2016 election.

“He basically said to me, ‘Hey you know, this is, maybe they did it, maybe they didn’t do it,’” Scaramucci said.

Prior to Mr Trump’s inauguration in January, an unclassified report revealed the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency all concluded the Russian government attempted to influence the election to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Mr Trump.

Scaramucci hinted that Mr Trump did not accept the conclusion of the intelligence community and questioned the media’s pursuit of the story, saying it tarnished Mr Trump’selection win.

“The mainstream media position on this, that they interfered in the election,” Mr Scaramucci said. “It actually in his mind, what are you guys suggesting? You’re going to delegitimise his victory?”

Mr Scaramucci said he would review the intelligence community’s evidence once he had his security clearance, but added that Mr Trump would be “super, super tough on Russia.”

It comes as Mr Scaramucci said that Mr Trump will not need to pardon himself, said new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union overnight.

“I’m not sure if [the president] has the right to pardon himself or not,” Scaramucci said on CNN, “but it doesn’t matter anyway, because that’s another one of those stupid hypotheticals. He’s not going to have to pardon himself because he’s done absolutely nothing wrong.”

Mr Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow, meanwhile, said in another interview overnight “pardons have not been discussed” in the Trump White House.

Mr Trump tweeted about pardons over the weekend, asserting his “complete power to pardon” in an update that came after a Washington Post report that the president is exploring whether he can use his broad constitutional pardon power on behalf of himself or members of his campaign or family.

Mr Scaramucci also vowed to halt White House leaks, saying staff will be fired if the leaks do not stop.

“If we don’t get the leaks stopped, I am a businessperson, and so I will take dramatic action to stop those leaks,” Scaramucci said on Fox News Sunday.

Scaramucci also said the leakers are “actually un-American,” and that he would discuss the issue further with White House staffers.

Mr Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier and Republican fundraiser, brings a combative style to the White House after Sean Spicer resigned late last week.

Mr Scaramucci, who has at times supported Democrats, spent part of the weekend deleting some of his own past tweets on subjects that run counter to Trump administration policy, such as taking action on climate change. Explaining the deletions, Scaramucci wrote on Twitter that “past views evolved & shouldn’t be a distraction”.