Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump's long-time confidant Keith Schiller privately testified that he rejected a Russian offer to send five women to then private-citizen Trump's hotel room during their 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant, according to multiple sources from both political parties with direct knowledge of the testimony. 
 
 Schiller, Trump's former bodyguard and personal aide, testified that he took the offer as a joke, two of the sources said. On their way up to Trump's hotel room that night, Schiller told the billionaire businessman about the offer and Trump laughed it off, Schiller told the House intelligence committee earlier this week. 
 
 After several minutes outside of Trump's door, which was Schiller's practice as Trump's security chief, he said he left. 
 
 Members of the committee raised the matter because of salacious allegations laid out in a dossier compiled by former British agent Christopher Steele, an opposition research document funded by Democrats detailing alleged ties between Trump and his associates with Russians. 
 
 During this week's closed-door hearing, House lawmakers walked through a Daily Caller article, which raised some of the allegations about Trump's Moscow trip from the dossier and discussed an alternative story involving Schiller's role in rejecting the Russian offer of sending prostitutes to Trump's room. 
 
 The dossier's claims about Trump's activities in Moscow are some of the most incendiary claims in the memos compiled by Steele, which claimed that Russia obtained "kompromat," or dirt, on Trump to use as blackmail. Trump has long denounced the dossier and flatly denied its assertions. 
 
 Stuart Sears, an attorney for Schiller, said the chairman and ranking member of the committee should investigate individuals leaking "misleading versions" of Schiller's testimony, calling the conduct "indefensible" and questioning the credibility of the House inquiry. 
 
 "We are appalled by the leaks that are coming from partisan insiders from the House Intelligence Committee," Sears said in a statement. "It is outrageous that the very Committee that is conducting an investigation into leaks - purportedly in the public interest - is itself leaking information and defaming cooperative witnesses like Mr. Schiller." 
 
 During the testimony with the House investigators, Schiller denied knowing about the salacious allegations contained in the dossier. He was also asked about a wide-range of issues, including meetings between Trump associates and Russians, and he denied having knowledge of many of those interactions, sources said. 
 
 Moreover, he denied knowing about the deliberations around the firing of FBI Director James Comey, saying he was only called into deliver a letter with the news to the FBI. 
 
 White House officials declined to comment. 
 
 While Trump and the White House have long rejected the dossier as an attempt to discredit the presidency, the FBI has corroborated some information in the dossier and used it as justification to obtain a surveillance warrant on Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page, CNN has reported. 
 
 But federal investigators have not verified the most salacious allegations regarding Trump's activities on his 2013 trip for the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow. 
 
 Schiller was asked about the Daily Caller article, and he confirmed a Russian made the offer to send the women to Trump's room which was raised around lunch-time, sources said. He was asked who made the offer, but he could not recall the identity of the individual, sources said. 
 
 Multiple sources said the offer to send women to Trump's room came from a Russian who was accompanying Emin Agalarov, a pop star whose father is a billionaire oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and who worked with Trump to bring the pageant to Moscow. But Schiller said the offer did not come from Agalarov himself, the sources said, disputing the Daily Caller report on that matter. 
 
 "Emin has no knowledge of that ever happening," said Scott Balber, an attorney for Agalarov. 
 
 Dossier subject of controversy 
 
 Trump has vehemently denied the allegations in the dossier since it was made public in January. At a press conference weeks before taking office, Trump said that he tells his staff before overseas trips, including to Russia, to "be very careful" in their hotel rooms because "you're gonna probably have cameras," and that they could end up on the news if they weren't cautious. 
 
 Trump has also ramped up his attacks after it became public that the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, through the law firm Perkins Coie, paid opposition research firm Fusion GPS to compile the material that led to the dossier. 
 
 "Clinton campaign & DNC paid for research that led to the anti-Trump Fake News Dossier. The victim here is the President," Trump tweeted last month. 
 
 Yet before Trump was inaugurated, Comey briefed Trump and outgoing President Barack Obama about the existence of the dossier. 
 
 Additionally, Comey testified that Trump personally denied to him, on two occasions, that he participated in the salacious activities alleged in the dossier. This all came before Trump fired Comey in May. 
 
 "The President returned to the salacious material I had briefed him about on January 6, and, as he had done previously, expressed his disgust for the allegations and strongly denied them," Comey said about a dinner with Trump in late January. "He said he was considering ordering me to investigate the alleged incident to prove it didn't happen." 
 
 Comey said Trump gave a more explicit denial in a March phone call. "He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia," Comey testified. 
 
 A fateful Moscow trip 
 
 Investigators probing potential Russia collusion asked Schiller to detail what happened during the 2013 Moscow trip when Trump was in charge of the Miss Universe pageant there. 
 
 Trump brought the pageant to Moscow with the help of Aras and Emin Agalarov, the Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire oligarch and his pop-star son. The November 2013 event was held at one of their properties in Moscow. 
 
 Video obtained by CNN in July shows Trump, Schiller, the Agalarovs and music publicist Rob Goldstone attending a July 2013 dinner in Las Vegas. The day after that gathering, the Trump Organization announced it would bring Miss Universe to Moscow. In June 2016, Goldstone connected with the President's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., at the request of Aras Agalarov to set up the meeting at Trump Tower with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. 
 
 Close confidant to Trump 
 
 Schiller, who is one of Trump's closest confidants, left the White House in September after serving as director of Oval Office operations. 
 
 As a longtime adviser to Trump, Schiller has been present for some of the most controversial moments of Trump's political career. 
 
 Trump dispatched Schiller in May to hand-deliver a letter to the FBI headquarters informing Comey of his termination, although Comey was in Los Angeles at the time. 
 
 UPDATE: This story has been updated with comment from Emin Agalarov's attorney. ||||| Keith Schiller, Donald Trump's longtime head of security, told congressional investigators that he rejected an offer to send five women to Trump’s hotel room during a trip to Moscow ahead of the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013, sources tell ABC News. 
 
 Interested in Donald Trump? Add Donald Trump as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Donald Trump news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest 
 
 In a four hour-plus meeting with congressional investigators Tuesday, Schiller was questioned about the 2013 Moscow trip with Trump and the president's firing of former FBI Director James Comey. 
 
 Sources say Schiller told Congress he believed the offer was a joke, and that he responded to the offer by saying Trump was "not interested." 
 
 He told Trump about the exchange several hours later and the two laughed about it, Schiller told investigators, according to sources familiar with the interview. 
 
 After walking Trump to his hotel room, Schiller reportedly told investigators he stayed outside the door for several minutes – his standard practice as Trump's security guard – before heading to his own room. He said did not see anyone enter Trump’s room. 
 
 ABC News first reported on congressional investigators' interest in Schiller. A former New York city cop, Schiller has been at Donald Trump’s side for years. 
 
 Schiller, who left his role as Trump’s director of Oval Office operations in September, hand-delivered Comey’s termination letter to FBI headquarters in May. He told investigators he did not know anything about Trump’s decision until he was asked to deliver the letter to the FBI. 
 
 Schiller denied knowledge of the salacious allegations against Trump included in the unverified dossier produced by the investigative firm Fusion GPS, and did not provide investigators with many definitive answers about his time with Trump, according to several sources in the room for the interview. 
 
 Trump has also denied those allegations himself, saying he knew there could be cameras hidden inside hotel rooms in Russia. 
 
 “I was in Russia years ago with the Miss Universe contest which did very well,” Trump said. “And I told many people, be careful because you don’t want to see yourself on television, cameras all over the place.” 
 
 Schiller’s attorney Stuart Sears declined to comment. ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption The allegations against Donald Trump in the documents read like something from a bad film 
 
 Donald Trump has described as "fake news" allegations published in some media that his election team colluded with Russia - and that Russia held compromising material about his private life. The BBC's Paul Wood saw the allegations before the election, and reports on the fallout now they have come to light. 
 
 The significance of these allegations is that, if true, the president-elect of the United States would be vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians. 
 
 I understand the CIA believes it is credible that the Kremlin has such kompromat - or compromising material - on the next US commander in chief. At the same time a joint taskforce, which includes the CIA and the FBI, has been investigating allegations that the Russians may have sent money to Mr Trump's organisation or his election campaign. 
 
 Claims about a Russian blackmail tape were made in one of a series of reports written by a former British intelligence agent, understood to be Christopher Steele. 
 
 As a member of MI6, he had been posted to the UK's embassy in Moscow and now runs a consultancy giving advice on doing business in Russia. He spoke to a number of his old contacts in the FSB, the successor to the KGB, paying some of them for information. 
 
 They told him that Mr Trump had been filmed with a group of prostitutes in the presidential suite of Moscow's Ritz-Carlton hotel. I know this because the Washington political research company that commissioned his report showed it to me during the final week of the election campaign. 
 
 The BBC decided not to use it then, for the very good reason that without seeing the tape - if it exists - we could not know if the claims were true. The detail of the allegations were certainly lurid. The entire series of reports has now been posted by BuzzFeed. 
 
 Image copyright Twitter 
 
 Mr Trump's supporters say this is a politically motivated attack. 
 
 The president-elect himself, outraged, tweeted this morning: "Are we living in Nazi Germany?" 
 
 Later, at his much-awaited news conference, he was unrestrained. 
 
 "A thing like that should have never been written," he said, "and certainly should never have been released." 
 
 He said the memo was written by "sick people [who] put that crap together". 
 
 The opposition research firm that commissioned the report had worked first for an anti-Trump superpac - political action committee - during the Republican primaries. 
 
 Then during the general election, it was funded by an anonymous Democratic Party supporter. But these are not political hacks - their usual line of work is country analysis and commercial risk assessment, similar to the former MI6 agent's consultancy. He, apparently, gave his dossier to the FBI against the firm's advice. 
 
 How did Trump 'compromise' claims come to light? 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Trump was in Moscow in 2013 for the Miss Universe pageant (pictured) 
 
 And the former MI6 agent is not the only source for the claim about Russian kompromat on the president-elect. Back in August, a retired spy told me he had been informed of its existence by "the head of an East European intelligence agency". 
 
 Later, I used an intermediary to pass some questions to active duty CIA officers dealing with the case file - they would not speak to me directly. I got a message back that there was "more than one tape", "audio and video", on "more than one date", in "more than one place" - in the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow and also in St Petersburg - and that the material was "of a sexual nature". 
 
 'Be very careful' 
 
 The claims of Russian kompromat on Mr Trump were "credible", the CIA believed. That is why - according to the New York Times and Washington Post - these claims ended up on President Barack Obama's desk last week, a briefing document also given to Congressional leaders and to Mr Trump himself. 
 
 Mr Trump did visit Moscow in November 2013, the date the main tape is supposed to have been made. There is TV footage of him at the Miss Universe contest. Any visitor to a grand hotel in Moscow would be wise to assume that their room comes equipped with hidden cameras and microphones as well as a mini-bar. 
 
 At his news conference, Mr Trump said he warned his staff when they travelled: "Be very careful, because in your hotel rooms and no matter where you go you're going to probably have cameras." So the Russian security services have made obtaining kompromat an art form. 
 
 Anthony Zurcher: Theatre of the absurd 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Even President Vladimir Putin says there is "kompromat" on him - though perhaps he is joking 
 
 One Russian specialist told me that Vladimir Putin himself sometimes says there is kompromat on him - though perhaps he is joking. The specialist went on to tell me that FSB officers are prone to boasting about having tapes on public figures, and to be careful of any statements they might make. 
 
 A former CIA officer told me he had spoken by phone to a serving FSB officer who talked about the tapes. He concluded: "It's hokey as hell." 
 
 Mr Trump and his supporters are right to point out that these are unsubstantiated allegations. 
 
 But it is not just sex, it is money too. The former MI6 agent's report detailed alleged attempts by the Kremlin to offer Mr Trump lucrative "sweetheart deals" in Russia that would buy his loyalty. 
 
 Mr Trump turned these down, and indeed has done little real business in Russia. But a joint intelligence and law enforcement taskforce has been looking at allegations that the Kremlin paid money to his campaign through his associates. 
 
 Legal applications 
 
 On 15 October, the US secret intelligence court issued a warrant to investigate two Russian banks. This news was given to me by several sources and corroborated by someone I will identify only as a senior member of the US intelligence community. He would never volunteer anything - giving up classified information would be illegal - but he would confirm or deny what I had heard from other sources. 
 
 10 things we learnt from Trump press event 
 
 Trump press conference: Full transcript 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Trump says Moscow has "never tried to use leverage on me" 
 
 "I'm going to write a story that says…" I would say. "I don't have a problem with that," he would reply, if my information was accurate. He confirmed the sequence of events below. 
 
 Last April, the CIA director was shown intelligence that worried him. It was - allegedly - a tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign. 
 
 It was passed to the US by an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic States. The CIA cannot act domestically against American citizens so a joint counter-intelligence taskforce was created. 
 
 The taskforce included six agencies or departments of government. Dealing with the domestic, US, side of the inquiry, were the FBI, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Justice. For the foreign and intelligence aspects of the investigation, there were another three agencies: the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency, responsible for electronic spying. 
 
 Lawyers from the National Security Division in the Department of Justice then drew up an application. They took it to the secret US court that deals with intelligence, the Fisa court, named after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. They wanted permission to intercept the electronic records from two Russian banks. 
 
 Their first application, in June, was rejected outright by the judge. They returned with a more narrowly drawn order in July and were rejected again. Finally, before a new judge, the order was granted, on 15 October, three weeks before election day. 
 
 Full coverage: Trump takes office 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Harry Reid, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, pictured, accused the FBI of holding back information 
 
 Neither Mr Trump nor his associates are named in the Fisa order, which would only cover foreign citizens or foreign entities - in this case the Russian banks. But ultimately, the investigation is looking for transfers of money from Russia to the United States, each one, if proved, a felony offence. 
 
 A lawyer- outside the Department of Justice but familiar with the case - told me that three of Mr Trump's associates were the subject of the inquiry. "But it's clear this is about Trump," he said. 
 
 I spoke to all three of those identified by this source. All of them emphatically denied any wrongdoing. "Hogwash," said one. "Bullshit," said another. Of the two Russian banks, one denied any wrongdoing, while the other did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 The investigation was active going into the election. During that period, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid, wrote to the director of the FBI, accusing him of holding back "explosive information" about Mr Trump. 
 
 Mr Reid sent his letter after getting an intelligence briefing, along with other senior figures in Congress. Only eight people were present: the chairs and ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, and the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties in Congress, the "gang of eight" as they are sometimes called. Normally, senior staff attend "gang of eight" intelligence briefings, but not this time. The Congressional leaders were not even allowed to take notes. 
 
 'Puppet' 
 
 In the letter to the FBI director, James Comey, Mr Reid said: "In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and co-ordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government - a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Mr Trump praises at every opportunity. 
 
 "The public has a right to know this information. I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public. There is no danger to American interests from releasing it. And yet, you continue to resist calls to inform the public of this critical information." 
 
 The CIA, FBI, Justice and Treasury all refused to comment when I approached them after hearing about the Fisa warrant. 
 
 It is not clear what will happen to the inter-agency investigation under President Trump - or even if the taskforce is continuing its work now. The Russians have denied any attempt to influence the president-elect - with either money or a blackmail tape. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Hillary Clinton referred to Mr Trump as Mr Putin's "puppet" during the debates 
 
 If a tape exists, the Russians would hardly give it up, though some hope to encourage a disloyal FSB officer who might want to make some serious money. Before the election, Larry Flynt, publisher of the pornographic magazine Hustler, put up a million dollars for incriminating tape of Mr Trump. Penthouse has now followed with its own offer of a million dollars for the Ritz-Carlton tape (if it exists). 
 
 It is an extraordinary situation, 10 days before Mr Trump is sworn into office, but it was foreshadowed during the campaign. 
 
 During the final presidential debate, Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump a "puppet" of Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin. "No puppet. No puppet," Mr Trump interjected, talking over Mrs Clinton. "You're the puppet. No, you're the puppet." 
 
 In a New York Times op-ed in August, the former director of the CIA, Michael Morell, wrote: "In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr Putin had recruited Mr Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation." 
 
 Agent; puppet - both terms imply some measure of influence or control by Moscow. 
 
 Michael Hayden, former head of both the CIA and the NSA, simply called Mr Trump a "polezni durak" - a useful fool. 
 
 The background to those statements was information held - at the time - within the intelligence community. Now all Americans have heard the claims. Little more than a week before his inauguration, they will have to decide if their president-elect really was being blackmailed by Moscow. 
 
 Clarification: 11 January - This article was amended to make clear that the opposition research firm which commissioned the report had first worked for an anti-Trump political action committee.
– President Trump's longtime bodyguard reportedly told Congress this week that Russians offered to send five women up to Trump's hotel room while he was in Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant in 2013. Sources with direct knowledge of Keith Schiller's testimony in front of the House intelligence committee this week confirmed the account to CNN, NBC News, and ABC News. Sources say Schiller, who had worked full-time for Trump since 2012, testified the offer was made by someone—he doesn't remember who—following a business meeting ahead of the pageant. He reportedly testified that he turned the offer down, believing it to be a joke. Sources say he later told Trump about the offer, and they both laughed about it. Committee members asked about the incident because of allegations made in a dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British agent. Specifically, the dossier alleged a "salacious" encounter between Trump and prostitutes at his Moscow hotel that was secretly recorded. Sources say Schiller testified that Trump went to bed alone that night and that he waited for a few minutes outside Trump's door before going to bed himself. He reportedly said he couldn't be sure what happened after that, but he doubts Trump had any guests. Sources say Schiller testified he and Trump were aware of surveillance dangers posed by hotels in Moscow. Schiller's lawyer says "the versions of Mr. Schiller’s testimony being leaked to the press are blatantly false and misleading."