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President Donald Trump disclosed highly classified information to Russia's foreign minister about a planned Islamic State operation, two U.S. officials said on Monday, plunging the White House into another controversy just months into Trump's short tenure in office.
The intelligence, shared at a meeting last week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, was supplied by a U.S. ally in the fight against the militant group, both officials with knowledge of the situation said.
The White House declared the allegations, first reported by the Washington Post, incorrect.
[...] One of the officials said the intelligence discussed by Trump in his meeting with Lavrov was classified "Top Secret" and held in a secure "compartment" to which only a handful of intelligence officials have access.
After Trump's disclosure of the information, which one of the officials described as spontaneous, officials immediately called the CIA and the National Security Agency, both of which have agreements with a number of allied intelligence services around the world, and informed them what had happened.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-idUSKCN18B2MX
Also at The Washington Post and The New York Times.
[Update.] According to Ars Technica, President Trump then proceeded to Tweet information about this meeting:
Statements from President Trump on Twitter and from White House National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster did not directly contradict details initially reported by the Washington Post late on Monday. McMaster said that no sources or methods were exposed in the conversation. However, the unnamed officials cited in the Post report were concerned that Trump's citing of the exact location "in the Islamic State’s territory where the US intelligence partner detected the threat" could expose the source. Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted:
As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
Trump also lashed out at the intelligence community for leaking about his actions:
I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @12:57PM (1 child)
But it's irrelevant since he never leaked anything according to witnesses.
Are you kidding?
The head of the National Security Council, General McMaster, who was in the room when it happened, literally said:
"The president wasn’t even aware of where this information came from. He wasn’t briefed on the source."
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/333611-mcmaster-trumps-conversations-with-russians-wholly-appropriate [thehill.com]
That is a straight-up admission that the information was classified.
Yeah, he's the president so he can arbitrarily declassifiy anything he wants.
That doesn't make it legitimate. He still has an oath of office to up hold and being a blabbermouth fails the part about "faithfully executing the Office of President of the United States"
(Score: 2) by deadstick on Thursday May 18 2017, @12:11AM
Yeah, he's the president so he can arbitrarily declassifiy anything he wants.
That doesn't make it legitimate. He still has an oath of office to up hold and being a blabbermouth fails the part about "faithfully executing the Office of President of the United States"
This. He has that authority because he's presumed to know what the hell he's doing. You could replace "declassifying information" with "pardoning the Unabomber" without changing the meaning.