Donald Trump’s camp hits back at report saying President-elect plans to axe nearly half of CIA staff in attempt to de-politicize the agency
The billionaire's spokesman blasted the story as '100 per cent false' as three spymasters claimed Russian officials were behind hacking of Democratic party's documents
DONALD Trump's camp have shot down a news report the President-elect plans to axe half of the CIA's staff in a bid to de-politicize the intelligence agencies.
The chief spokesman of the billionaire said on Thursday he had no plans to "restructure" the organisation and downsize its headquarters.
His incoming press secretary Sean Spicer said it was based on anonymous sources and added to the "These reports are false. All transition activities are for information gathering purposes and all discussions are tentative."
"The president-elect's top priority will be to ensure the safety of the American people and the security of the nation, and he is committed to finding the best and most effective way to do it.
"There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure. It is 100 per cent false.
"They all need to be slimmed down. The focus will be on restructuring the agencies and how they interact."
Trump has a long history of being critical of the CIA - as far back as 2002 he spoke out about intelligence which was provided saying Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which escalated into the invasion of the country.
The story was in the wake of Director of National Intelligence John Brennan's announcement the intelligence agency believes Russia was involved with hacking American computer systems to help secure Trump as the winner of the White House.
And on Thursday Russia was labelled a "full-scope cyber actor" that posed a major threat to the United States, by American spymasters.
Director of national intelligence James Clapper, undersecretary of defence for intelligence Marcel Lettre, and Admiral Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency (NSA) made the claims in front of the US senate.
In a joint statement, they said: "We assess that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorised the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures."
The statement added that: "Russia is a full-scope cyber actor that poses a major threat to U.S. government, military, diplomatic, commercial and critical infrastructure."
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