Trump dismisses CIA report that Russia interfered in election as ‘ridiculous’

US President-elect Donald Trump has said he doesn’t believe a CIA report that concluded Russian hackers had tried to sway the US electionin his favour.

“I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News that will be broadcast later.

He blamed Democrats for putting out the media reports and said he didn’t believe they even originated from the CIA.

Reuters on Friday quoted a senior US intelligence official as saying that intelligence officials have concluded with “high confidence” that not only did their Russian counterparts direct the hacking of Democratic Party organisations and leaders, but that they did so to undermine the party’s candidate Hillary Clinton.

Quoting an unnamed “senior US official”, the Washington Post on Saturday said that intelligence agencies had “identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman [John Podesta”.

At one point in the campaign, Trump publicly encouraged Russia to “find” Clinton’s emails, but later said he was being sarcastic.

Outgoing US President Barack Obama on Friday ordered an investigation into cyber-attacks, blamed on Russia, that took place during the election campaign. White House spokesperson Eric Schultz said Obama wanted the investigation to be carried out under his watch.