The Latest: NY financier set to join Trump White House

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times EST):

8:40 p.m.

A prominent New York financier is set to be named a top White House adviser to President-elect Donald Trump.

Anthony Scaramucci will be tasked with outreach to the U.S. business and political community.

That's according to two sources with knowledge of the appointment not authorized to discuss that matter publicly.

Scaramucci was a top fundraiser during the campaign. He joins a growing contingent of former Goldman Sachs employees now set to join the new administration. Others include Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon and Treasury pick Steven Mnuchin.

Scaramucci's title is still being determined. He will likely head what was considered the Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs under President George W. Bush and is now run by Valerie Jarrett, a top aide to President Barack Obama.

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6:30 p.m.

President-elect Donald Trump hasn't yet been sworn into office, but he's already looking ahead to 2020.

Trump's team announced Thursday that he'll be keeping alive his presidential campaign committee, Donald J. Trump for President Inc.

Trump's former deputy campaign manager, Michael Glassner, will lead the group, along with Arizona deputy treasurer Sean Dollman and John Pence. The latter is Vice President-elect Mike Pence's nephew.

The group will focus on fundraising and building data for Trump's possible re-election in 2020 and will coordinate closely with the Republican National Committee.

Staff will continue working from New York's Trump Tower, where his campaign was based.

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3:20 p.m.

President-elect Donald Trump says he plans to appoint Goldman Sachs partner Dina Powell to a senior role in his administration.

Trump announced Thursday that Powell will serve as assistant to the president and senior counselor for economic initiatives. She will work on entrepreneurship, small business development and the empowerment of women, he said.

Powell is currently global head of impact investing at Goldman Sachs and president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. She recently has acted as an informal adviser to Ivanka Trump, who is focused on issues affecting women and families.

Powell is one of several former Goldman Sachs executives entering the Trump administration, including Steven Mnuchin (mih-NOO'-chin), Trump's nominee for Treasury secretary, who worked there for 17 years.

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1:50 p.m.

The White House is criticizing President-elect Donald Trump and his team for its treatment of a CNN reporter who tried to ask a question at a news conference.

Trump lashed out at CNN's Jim Acosta in his Wednesday news conference, refusing to take his question and calling CNN and Buzzfeed "fake news." Acosta later said a Trump spokesman threatened to kick him out of the news conference if he disrupted it again.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says he sometimes gets frustrated when reporters ask President Barack Obama multiple or redundant questions, interrupt the president or preface questions with inaccurate information. But he says he never threatened or was tempted to throw anyone out of the room.

Earnest says the Trump team's response raises questions about confidence in its arguments.

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1:20 p.m.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says President-elect Donald Trump will come to appreciate U.S. intelligence work once he's more familiar with it.

Ryan says: "I think as he gets to know our intelligence community better, I think he'll learn to appreciate all the great work they do."

At his news conference on Wednesday, Trump harshly criticized the U.S. intelligence agencies for leaking details of a dossier Russia had of unsubstantiated personal and financial information that could compromise the president-elect. Trump denies the allegations, and likened the leak to tactics used in Nazi Germany.

Ryan says of Trump: "He is obviously very frustrated at what's happening because it isn't fair and it's all unsubstantiated so his frustration is completely understandable."

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12:15 p.m.

France's National Front leader Marine Le Pen is visiting Trump Tower as part of a surprise visit to New York.

The French politician was spotted grabbing coffee with aides inside the president-elect's eponymous skyscraper before being whisked upstairs in an elevator.

It was unclear who she is meeting with, but incoming press secretary Sean Spicer says she was not scheduled to meet with the president-elect or anyone on his team.

The visit comes just months before France's next presidential election.

Le Pen has described Trump's victory as a sign of hope for her own campaign. The National Front is a far-right political party and a leading political force in France.

-This story has been changed to correct that the National Front is a far-right, not conservative, political party.

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11:30 a.m.

Germany's foreign minister says Donald Trump needs to find his own style as president.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Berlin he doesn't read too much into the U.S. president-elect's tweets so far, nor did he expect to discern "a comprehensive foreign and security policy" from Trump's news conference Wednesday.

Steinmeier said the event covered "the whole variety of domestic and foreign policy topics (and didn't) give us any greater certainty where the United States is heading."

Steinmeier also said he was "puzzled" by Trump's reference to Nazi Germany: "I can't interpret it."

He said it was doubtful whether Trump would be able to express himself mainly through Twitter. "At least, I wouldn't be able to formulate a foreign policy idea in 140 characters."

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9:46 a.m.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani finally has a job in the incoming Trump administration.

The president elect's transition team announced Thursday that Giuliani will lend his expertise on cybersecurity issue facing the private sector. The former mayor is CEO of an international security consulting firm.

Trump is planning to host a series of meetings after he takes office with corporate executives where they can discuss their shared security challenges.

Trump has said that cybersecurity will be a top priority of his administration.

Giuliani had been considered for several cabinet-level positions, including secretary of state, but eventually pulled himself out of running.

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7:23 a.m.

President-elect Donald Trump says the director of national intelligence called him about a document alleging Russia has damaging information about him.

Trump tweeted Thursday, "James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated. Made up, phony facts. Too bad!"

Clapper said late Wednesday that he had called Trump to say that the intelligence community made no judgment on the credibility of the claims in the document and lamented that it had been made public. He also said he told Trump that he does not believe the "leaks" came from inside the intelligence community.

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7:10 a.m.

A top aide to Donald Trump says he was "very happy" to hear from an intelligence chief that officials have not made any judgment on the reliability of potentially damaging information about the president elect.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a statement late Wednesday he told Trump that no decision had been made on the credibility of the information in a document provided to Congress.

Clapper also said he told Trump he does not believe the leak of the document came from the intelligence community.

Kellyanne Conway told NBC's "Today" that Trump was very happy to get the call from Clapper. But she would not say Thursday whether Trump believes Clapper's claim the release came from outside the intelligence community.

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This corrects in Le Pen item that the National Front is a far-right, not conservative, political party.