U.S.-President-elect Donald Trump is holding his first news conference in nearly six months Wednesday and is sure to face questions about U.S. intelligence conclusions that Russia meddled in the November election to help him win.

He is also expected to be asked how he plans to address potential conflicts of interest involving his global business empire.

Trump’s last news conference came in late July when he began his remarks by lambasting his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton for going months without speaking to the press.

“It’s been 235 days since crooked Hillary Clinton has had a press conference,” Trump said at that time. “And you, as reporters who give her all of these glowing reports, should ask yourselves why. And I’ll tell you why. Because despite the nice platitudes, she’s been a mess.”

Most modern U.S. presidents have held a news conference within a few days of winning the White House, and while Trump has posted more than 1,600 Twitter comments since then and made brief statements during his transition to power January 20, he has not met formally with reporters to take questions.

He had initially planned Wednesday’s news conference for mid-December, saying he would discuss the fact he was leaving his business to avoid any appearance of conflict.

Trump has a vast portfolio of U.S. and overseas business interests prompting questions about how they will be managed while he is in the White House making policy decisions.

Trump will also likely face questions about reported claims Russia has compiled information to compromise him and that his campaign officials colluded with Russian intelligence. Trump, his attorney, and a Russian presidential spokesman have all denounced the reports as false.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]The unsubstantiated information was presented to Trump last week along with a report saying U.S. intelligence agencies have a high level of confidence Russia set out to undermine the U.S. presidential election, particularly to discredit Clinton. The report made no conclusion about whether the outcome of the election was affected.

The intelligence agencies concluded Russia hacked thousands of emails of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, which were released by WikiLeaks in the month before the election. Many of the emails revealed embarrassing behind-the-scenes efforts by Democratic officials to help Clinton win the party’s presidential nomination over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said the president elect does not deny entities in Russia were behind the computer hacking. Trump has used Twitter to blame the Democratic National Committee for its poor internet security practices and said whatever happened did not affect the election result.

Source:VOA [xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]

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