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ByJuliePaceand Jonathan Lemire TheAssociatedPress NEW YORK President-elect Donald Trump appeared to side with controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over U.S. intelli- gence officials Wednesday, citing the activist's asser- tion that Russia did not pro- vide his organization with the hacked Democratic emails that roiled the 2016 election. Trump's latest challenges to the intelligence commu- nity — which has assessed that Russia interfered in the election on the Republican's behalf — comes as the gov- ernment rushes to finished a highly anticipated report on the hacking. The presi- dent-elect is expected to be briefed on the report Friday by CIA Director John Bren- nan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of Na- tional Intelligence James Clapper. Clapper is also testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday. But he could be limited in what he can say about the report's conclusions given that Trump — and perhaps President Barack Obama, who ordered the report — will not have been briefed by the time he steps before lawmakers. The gulf between the in- telligence community's as- sessment and the public in- formation available to sup- port that assessment has given Trump an opening to question whether Rus- sia was behind hacking of the Democratic National Committee and John Po- desta, a top aide to cam- paign rival Hillary Clinton. Trump's resistance has put him at odds with Obama and lawmakers in both par- ties, raising questions about why an incoming American president appears to believe Russia's denials over the in- telligence agencies he will soon oversee. Trump's posture has ap- peared to stem in part from concerns that the allega- tions of Russian election interference delegitimized his victory. But Trump aides have argued Trump's position isn't personal, but based on what he sees as in- complete or inconclusive in- formation. Spokesman Sean Spicer said Wednesday that Trump has received "raw data" on the hacking during daily in- telligence briefings. But he said the president-elect was "more skeptical of the con- clusions that are drawn." Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who met with law- makers on Capitol Hill Wednesday, said Trump was expressing "his very sincere and healthy Ameri- can skepticism" about intel- ligence conclusions. "Given some of the intel- ligence failures of recent years the president-elect's made it clear to the Ameri- can people that he's skepti- cal of conclusions from the bureaucracy and I think the American people hear him loud and clear," Pence said. The nature of the presi- dency gives the commander in chief discretion to de- cide how to respond to in- telligence assessments. But any skepticism about the agencies' conclusions usu- ally plays out privately in the Situation Room and Oval Office, not on Twitter — Trump's main forum for challenging the intelligence community and others. On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted about a Fox News interview in which Assange denied Russia pro- vided WikiLeaks with Pod- esta's emails. WikiLeaks released thousands of Po- desta's files throughout the final weeks of the presiden- tial election. "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' — why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!" Trump wrote. It was remarkable for the incoming president to give credibility to Assange, whose organization has been under criminal inves- tigation for its role in clas- sified information leaks. As- sange has said his source for the hacked emails WikiLeaks published dur- ing the campaign was not a government, but his asser- tion has left open the pos- sibility they came from a third party. On Tuesday night, Trump cast more doubt on U.S. in- telligence agencies by say- ing his briefing on the hack- ing report has been delayed. "Perhaps more time needed to build a case," he wrote. Trump's tweets caused confusion among intelli- gence officials, who said there was no delay in the briefing schedule. The fresh clash came as Trump took further steps to fill his Cabinet and key White House positions, with his attention shifting toward the challenges of governing. He announced that he wants Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton to be chair- man of the Securities and Exchange Commission, say- ing in a statement that his pick is "a highly talented ex- pert on many aspects of fi- nancial and regulatory law." Trump has repeatedly said he wants to undo many regulations that he says have "stifled invest- ment" in Americans' busi- nesses. Clayton, in a state- ment, said he'll "carefully monitor" the financial sec- tor and set policies that en- courages companies to cre- ate jobs. Clayton is the latest Trump pick with deep ties to Wall Street — having rep- resented Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Barclays Capital Inc. On Capitol Hill, mean- while, Pence told Republi- cans that Trump has sig- naled that "it's time to get to work" and plans to have a shorter-than-usual 90-min- ute Inaugural parade on Jan. 20 and then go straight to the Oval Office to begin signing executive orders re- pealing some of President Obama's actions. Pence did not specify the topics of the potential executive orders. Trump also promised to hold his first formal news conference since his Nov. 8 election victory next week in New York. He has al- ready waited longer than any other president-elect in the modern era to hold his first exchange with jour- nalists. Most have held such events within days of their elections. Transition officials said Wednesday that Trump would address his busi- ness during a wide-rang- ing press conference but it was not clear if he would fully outline how he plans to avoid potential conflicts of interest involving the Trump Organization after taking office. ASSERTIONS TrumpusesAssangetocastdoubtonUSintelcaseonhacking J.SCOTTAPPLEWHITE—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Vice President-elect Mike Pence is welcomed at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday by House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. following a closed-door meeting with the GOP caucus. Pence and Ryan promised repeal of President Obama's health care law now that the GOP is in charge of White House and Congress. By Meg Kinnard The Associated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. Con- victed Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof spoke to the jury for the first time at his death penalty trial Wednesday, telling them there's nothing wrong with himpsychologicallyandthat he is not trying to keep any secrets from them. But perhaps most impor- tantiswhathedidn'tsay:He didn'taskjurorstosparehim from the death penalty. The jurylastmonthunanimously found Roof guilty of hate crimes and other charges in the shooting deaths of nine black church members dur- ing Bible study. The jurors will now decide whether he shouldbesentencedtolifein prison or death. "My opening statement is going to seem a little bit outof place," the soft-spoken 22-year-old white man said calmly as he stood in front of a podium, occasionally glancing at notes. "I am not going to lie to you. ... Other thanthefactthatItrustpeo- ple that I shouldn't and the fact that I'm probably bet- ter at constantly embarrass- ingmyselfthananyonewho's ever existed, there's nothing wrong with me psychologi- cally." Roof'sattorneyshaveindi- cated that he chose to repre- sent himself during the sen- tencing phase of his trial be- cause he was worried they might present embarrass- ing evidence about himself or his family. As early as last summer, they said they had planned to introduce evi- dence that Roof suffers from mental illness. Since then, many motions have been filed under seal, purportedly toconcealsensitiveinforma- tion, but it's likely more de- tailsonwhatlawyerswanted to present. CHARLESTON SHOOTER Ro of : I'm fine me nt al ly | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2017 6 A