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Anonymous has once again rounded on US President-elect Donald Trump, threatening to expose his "financial and personal ties with Russian mobsters".

The hacktivist collective put out a series of tweets from one of its primary Twitter accounts on Monday, claiming to have inside information on some of Trump's more insalubrious affairs.

"You have financial and personal ties with Russian mobsters, child traffickers, and money launderers," Anonymous wrote.

"This isn't the 80's any longer, information doesn't vanish, it is all out there. You are going to regret the next 4 years."

The hacker collective did not provide evidence to back up its unsubstantiated allegations, or say how the group intended to expose this information.

The attack came after Donald Trump targeted outgoing CIA chief John Brennan with a Tweet saying, "Was this the leaker of fake news?"

"Fake news" refers to a report written by British spy Christopher Steele, which alleges that Trump paid prostitutes to urinate on his hotel bed in Moscow as a "dirty protest" against Barack Obama - who had previously stayed in the same hotel suite.

Trump described the allegations as " phony news from sick people " - specifically attacking CNN, which broke the story, and BuzzFeed, which published the document.

This is not the first time Anonymous has targeted Trump. In March 2016, the collective declared "total war" on the presidential candidate , threatening to shut down his websites and expose what he didn't want the public to know.

It then claimed to have leaked his phone number and social security number on Pastebin, and urged followers to begin their own investigations into "this would-be dictator".

In a video, Anonymous called on "every able person with a computer" to join #OpTrump, with the aim of dismantling his campaign and sabotaging his brand.

However, a few days later, a group calling itself the Anonymous Patriots said the hacktivist collective's declaration of war on Trump was an attack on free speech .

Using a computerised voice, Anonymous Patriots said: "We are feeling deeply concern over an operation that was launched in our name.

"Some individuals are promoting this operation under the collective banner. We, Anonymous, have always been defending freedom of speech. We, Anonymous, are warning you about the lies and deceits pushed under our banner."