Is Russia Blackmailing Donald Trump? False Information, Suspicious Claims Surround Golden Showers Controversy

President-elect Donald Trump blasted Wednesday unsubstantiated reports presented to him and President Barack Obama by intelligence officials and later leaked to the public alleging Russian officials possessed "compromising" information on Trump regarding extensive contact with Moscow officials and graphic descriptions of sexual acts.

The 35-page dossier, which contains factual inaccuracies, was published online Tuesday by BuzzFeed News and has generated controversy across news outlets and social media. While some have pointed to Trump's past support for Russia and allegations of Moscow's intervention in the presidential election on his behalf as supporting evidence for these claims, which Trump has rejected, others have highlighted major flaws and suspicious intentions in the unverified reports that question their legitimacy.

"A thing like that should have never been written," Trump said Wednesday in a highly-anticipated press conference in New York.

The document was said to have originated from a retired U.K. spy, who compiled the information on behalf of a political and corporate research firm whose past clients have been political opponents of Trump. Rumors of the dossier's claims, which include Trump engaging in a sexual act involving urination known as a "golden shower," circulated among intelligence circles in Washington before being shown to Trump and Obama, according to CNN, which broke the news Tuesday without publishing the contents of the documents. Since Buzzfeed News posted the dossier in full later that day, inaccuracies have begun to surface.

Michael Cohen, Trump's attorney, was alleged by the leaked dossier to be one of the primary figures facilitating the president-elect's relationship with Moscow. Cohen denied this claim, disputing not only his role, but crucial details included in the dossier. He responded to accusations of his involvement in a meeting in Prague in August and September 2016 by tweeting a picture of his passport and writing "I've never been to Prague," calling the reports "fake news." Reports have since suggested the documents may refer to a different Michael Cohen.

"I’m telling you emphatically that I’ve not been to Prague, I’ve never been to Czech [Republic], I’ve not been to Russia,” Cohen told The Atlantic Tuesday “The story is completely inaccurate, it is fake news meant to malign Mr. Trump."

Trump joined Cohen in calling the reports "fake news" and "a political witch hunt" reminiscent of Nazi Germany via Twitter. Intelligence officials have struggled to verify the claims, according to the New York Times, which also could not substantiate any information within the dossier. Other inaccuracies within the report included the misspelling of Russia's largest private insurance company Alfa Group - called "Alpha Group" in the documents - and alleging that the Russian village of Barvikha was “reserved for the residences of the top leadership and their close associates."

Some elements of the dossier appeared to conflict with logic. The documents maintain that witnesses to Trump's "perverted" acts had all been silenced, without further detail, and only Trump's business partner Aras Agalarov - misspelled "Araz" would know the details of such behavior. Intelligence officials also questioned the provenance of the documents. Former Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin told Newsweek in an email that, while he had not yet read the reports, it raised serious doubts.

“The two things I'd like most to know are 1.) what is the chain of acquisition—it was apparently circuitous. That always holds clues on whether someone has an agenda and what that might be,” he wrote. “2.) Who is the author—is it someone with experience and skill at vetting sources or someone less so. Without knowing these things, it's impossible to judge.”

The report was leaked at a very inopportune moment for the president-elect. It surfaced just before Trump's first press conference since being elected in November, forcing him to address the issue and distract from other major announcements. In New York, Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, rejected the idea that Russia was blackmailing him. He acknowledged Russia may have played a role in a series of hacks targeting the Democratic Party in the leading up to the election, but called his relationship with Moscow an "asset," especially in combatting terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

Russia has denied monitoring Trump and maintaining any compromising information on the president-elect, calling it an attempt to sabotage relations between Washington and Moscow.

"The fabrication of such lies in terms of the previous open part of the report, and this one which is a comparable lie, it's called pulp fiction in English," Dmitry Peskov said, spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Tuesday, according to CNN. "Clearly there are those who are creating hysteria, who are trying to support this witch hunt, and President-elect Trump himself described it like this."