WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump dodged questions Wednesday about ties with Russia, railed against intelligence leaks and defended the national security advisor he just fired, as crisis engulfed his fledgling administration.
Amid revelations that Trump aides were in repeated contact with Russian intelligence officials in the run-up to his shock election victory last year, the Republican billionaire battened down the hatches, even as members of his party called for a broader probe.
The 70-year-old president accused his own intelligence community of being behind the leaks, directly pointing the finger at the National Security Agency and the FBI.
"This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign," Trump said in one tweet.
"The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by 'intelligence' like candy. Very un-American!"
At a press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump called on journalists sympathetic to his administration in order to dodge tough questions about his aides' ties to Moscow.
He addressed the high-profile sacking of national security advisor Michael Flynn -- only to blame reporters for what he called the mistreatment of his former aide.
"I think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as I call it, the fake media in many cases," he said.
Trump demanded Flynn's resignation Monday, after wiretaps showed he falsely claimed he did not discuss sanctions policy with Russia's ambassador to Washington.
Since then, Trump's administration has been shaken by new reports of high-level Russian contacts with his aides and associates during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Among those picked up on the calls was Paul Manafort, a Trump campaign chairman who had worked as a political consultant in Ukraine, The New York Times said. Manafort called the report "absurd."
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