President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday shot down reports that Russian spies have blackmail material of him engaging in illicit sex acts in Moscow, saying that he is “extremely careful” not to compromise himself when he travels overseas and is also a “germophobe.”
Speaking at a press conference at Trump Tower, Trump addressed details laid out in a 35-page dossier published by BuzzFeed on Tuesday in which an ex-British spy claimed to have reams of dirt on Trump, including information that when Trump traveled to Moscow in 2013, he hired prostitutes to visit him in his Ritz Carlton hotel room.
One claim in the dossier, which is unsubstantiated and includes several disputed claims, is that Trump instructed the prostitutes to urinate on each other in front of him.
“Does anyone really believe that story?” Trump asked incredulously during the press conference.
“I’m also very much of a germophobe, by the way, believe me,” he added to laughter from his audience.
Russia is well known for spying on politicians and other high-profile visitors. One example comes from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Russia’s deputy prime minister said at the time that Russia’s intelligence agencies had placed video cameras in showers in Sochi hotels to spy on Olympic athletes.
Trump said he aware of such traps and that he goes to great lengths to avoid compromising himself.
“When I leave our country…I am extremely careful,” he said.
“I’m surrounded by bodyguards. I’m surrounded by people. I always tell them, if I’m leaving this country, be very careful, because in your hotel rooms and no matter where you go, you’re going to probably have cameras.”
He noted that Russia is not the only foreign nation that spies on high-profile visitors, but he added that “I would certainly put them in that category.”
“In those rooms you have cameras in the strangest places, cameras that are so small, with modern technology, you can’t see them and you won’t know. You better be careful or you’ll be watching yourself on nightly television. I tell this to people all the time,” Trump added.
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