US intelligence 'paid $100,000 to Russian who claimed to have compromising information on Trump but failed to provide it'

A Russian who offered US intelligence officials stolen cyberweapons and compromising material on Donald Trump took $100,000 (£72,000) but failed to provide any of the promised goods, according to a New York Times report. Several US intelligence officials told the newspaper they were most interested in retrieving National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools that were stolen in 2015 and had since been used to infect millions of computers around the world. The Russian claimed to have access to a computer code for the stolen cyberweapons as well as information that would link Mr Trump and his associates to Russia, according to the paper.