Well there’s a headline we never thought we’d write.

One of the biggest stories around last year’s US presidential election was the allegation that Russia had hacked senior Democratic party officials in a bid to boost Donald Trump’s campaign. At the end of the year tensions between the US and Russia ramped up a notch when President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats.

At the time Trump dismissed the hacking allegations, saying: “I think we ought to get on with our lives.” But today he might be singing a different tune.

“Piss Trump” And Other Allegations From Russia

This morning CNN published a story claiming that “Russian operatives” had gathered “compromising personal and financial information” relating to Trump. According to CNN both Trump and President Obama were briefed on the allegations by the Director of National Intelligence and the heads of the CIA, FBI and NSA.

The allegations are based on a dossier put together by a former British intelligence officer, but the FBI is still in the process of verifying how legit the claims are. For that reason CNN refused to publish the document, though they admitted it was circulating “among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress and other government officials in Washington.”

So what could the “compromising personal information” involve?

A few hours after CNN’s story broke, BuzzFeed wrote their own story on the dossier but they decided to publish the whole thing. BuzzFeed acknowledged that “the allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors” but published it anyway “so that Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the US government.”

According to the document Trump maintained close relations with senior Russian government officials and “accepted a regular flow of intelligence” from the Russian government on his political rivals. It also alleges that Russian intelligence operatives have information related to “perverted sexual acts” Trump took part in when he travelled to Moscow.

I just got back from Russia-learned lots & lots. Moscow is a very interesting and amazing place! U.S. MUST BE VERY SMART AND VERY STRATEGIC.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2013

The report alleges Trump hired out the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Moscow because he knew Barack and Michelle Obama had previously stayed there. According to apparent hotel sources Trump then “defiled” the bed by “employing a number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ (urination) show in front of him.”.

The hotel was apparently bugged by Russian intelligence agencies.

It’s worth restating that the allegations are unverified and US intelligence agencies have refused to confirm their veracity. But that isn’t stopping people from jumping all over the story.

If all media can run wild with unverified Hillary email story for a year, we can seriously entertain Piss Trump today without shame.

— (((David Avallone))) (@DAvallone) January 10, 2017

Trump hired people to piss on a bed in a suite because the Obama's once slept there? Y'all really put a deranged Regina George in the WH

— @MADBLACKTHOT (@MADBLACKTHOT) January 10, 2017

throwing a primo ritz carlton moscow piss party would not even crack the top 50 most objectionable and disqualifying things about trump

— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) January 10, 2017

However some people are pointing out that the “golden shower” element of the story isn’t anywhere near as important as the allegations that Trump was colluding with the Russian government.

Forget the salacious stuff, this suggests total cooperation between Trump and Putin govt pic.twitter.com/Gi8pEGJyxv

— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) January 10, 2017

Unsurprisingly the allegations have become the biggest news story in the US. Trump’s lawyer has publicly denied the reports and referred to them as “fake news”.

Should The Allegations Have Been Published?

It’s understandable why CNN didn’t publish the full dossier. Neither they, nor US intelligence agencies, have been able to verify it and the identity of the former British spy behind the document is unknown.

The New York Times has also written about the allegations, but said the material could not be corroborated or confirmed.

BuzzFeed is already copping some criticism for its decision to publish the whole thing. According to Recode, “BuzzFeed’s decision to publish the memos puts it outside, at least for now, of norms observed by more traditional news outlets.”

BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, took to Twitter to defend the company’s decision. In an email to all staff Smith wrote, “Our presumption is to be transparent in our journalism and to share what we have with our readers. We have always erred on the side of publishing. In this case, the document was in wide circulation at the highest levels of American government and media.

“Publishing this document was not an easy or simple call, and people of good will may disagree with our choice. But publishing this dossier reflects how we see the job of reporters in 2017.”

We don’t know for sure if the allegations are true, and we might never find out. But the dossier, and BuzzFeed’s decision to publish it, has already kicked off a whole new round of debate on Trump’s links to the Russian government, media ethics and what constitutes “fake news”.