WASHINGTON: A Russian who offered stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons and compromising information on President Donald Trump bilked US spies out of $100,000 last year, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing US and European security officials.

The money was delivered to a Berlin hotel room in September and was intended as the first installment of a $1 million reward, according to US officials, the Russian and communications reviewed by the Times, the newspaper reported.

CIA spokesman Dean Boyd denied the story on Saturday, saying, “The fictional story that CIA was bilked out of $100,000 is patently false.”

The theft of the secret hacking tools was very damaging to the NSA, which was trying to determine exactly what was missing, the Times said.

He claimed it would link the president and his associates to Russia, the Times said, citing the officials.

But instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated material involving Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data, the paper cited the officials as saying.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2018