Trump slams CIA report of Russian influence on US election as 'ridiculous'

Donald Trump has blasted a CIA report which concluded that Russia attempted to influence the result of the US presidential election through the leaking of files to Wikileaks.

The billionaire property developer emerged victorious against Hillary Clinton last month after a bitter campaign in which whistle-blowing site Wikipedia released thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee, including those of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.

The New York Times reported at the weekend that US intelligence agency had "high confidence" that Russian authorities hacked files from both the Republican and Democrat sides during the latter stages of the election, but only released those from the latter group.

This followed a story in the Washington Post that cited unnamed sources who said the CIA had judged that "Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency", claiming that US intelligence agencies had identified "individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails" from both the DNC and Podesta.

With none of the evidence for these claims disclosed, President-elect Trump rubbished the claims from the CIA in an interview with Fox News.

"I think it's ridiculous," Trump said. "I think it's just another excuse."

"We had a massive landslide victory as you know in the Electoral College," he added. "I guess the final numbers are 306, and she's down to a very low number. No, I don't believe that at all."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was less decisive in the report it delivered, concluding that it was not 100% sure the Republican National Committee was directly breached, though FBI investigators did find that a breach of a third-party entity that held data belonging to the RNC.

A senior Democrat senator has called on the head of the FBI James Comey to resign after claiming that the organisation covered up the information about Republican emails in the final weeks of the campaign. Minority leader Harry Reid made the claim on Saturday, accusing Comey of partisanship.

"The FBI had this material for a long time but Comey, who is of course a Republican, refused to divulge specific information about Russia and the presidential election," Reid said.

“I think he should be investigated by the Senate. He should be investigated by other agencies of the government including the security agencies because if ever there was a matter of security it’s this … I don’t think any of us understood how partisan Comey was," the senator added.

Trump has previously faced criticism for his relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, after both men praised each other's work in the run up to the election.

Trump has praised Putin's leadership skills, and lauded his ability to keep "very strong control over his country", while the Russian leader has referred to the incoming president as a "very outstanding man".

Trump is rumoured to be close to nominating ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, according to widespread reports on Sunday, with the Wall Street Journal noting that Tillerson has close ties to Putin.