Trump, Russia issue denials as new meddling charges hit US election

Donald Trump and Russia on Friday both angrily dismissed US intelligence's account that Moscow is meddling in this year's election as Democrats accused the president of betraying democracy.

US intelligence chief Joseph Maguire, whom Trump replaced on Wednesday with a loyal partisan lacking direct experience in the field, warned lawmakers of Russian interference in a classified briefing last week.

The US intelligence community publicly concluded that Russia intervened in 2016, including by manipulating social media, but Maguire reportedly revealed that Moscow wanted Trump to be re-elected and was meddling in the Democratic Party's primaries.

Trump, who has repeatedly shown irritation at assertions that Russia helped him win the White House, denounced the latest assertions as the work of the rival party.

"Another misinformation campaign is being launched by Democrats in Congress saying that Russia prefers me to any of the Do Nothing Democrat candidates who still have been unable to, after two weeks, count their votes in Iowa," Trump tweeted, referring to the debacle in releasing results from the Democrats' first contest.

"Hoax number 7!"
"Our intel agencies say Putin is interfering in our election to help Trump," he wrote on Twitter. "What's the definition of treason?" Representative Eric Swalwell, who serves on the House intelligence committee, tweeted simply: "Agent for Russia."