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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: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 17 2017, @02:26PM (1 child)
I won't argue the point about authority to declassify. But "declassifying" information that is not even ours to declassify is another matter. Especially if the ally we obtained it from has not authorized it to be shared with anyone.
Trump, and possibly some of his supporters, likely have no comprehension of the magnitude of damage done by this. Blissfully unaware.
I won't defend the incredibly stupid irresponsible thing Hillary did in mishandling information. But the Trump show makes a daily spectacle of ineptitude and bumbling incompetence of even basic things. Like how to implement an executive order in a way that doesn't blindside your own agencies, cause confusion and disrupt their operations. Let alone change the status of vetted people already in flight who land to discover they can't enter the country; and how their situation is to be handled is unclear. That's just one example. Trump undermines his own people at every turn. He demands loyalty, but its a one way street since he throws people under the bus. These things pale compared to sharing an ally's classified information with Russia.
If Trump didn't share anything classified, then there should be no problem releasing a transcript of the conversation. If that transcript is classified, then that information was leaked by Trump to the Russians.
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(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:03PM
I'm not sure that there would be "no problem in leaking a transcript". Putin might have requested that it not be leaked. (Of course, now he's apparently willing to leak it himself...believe it if you want to.)
But I'd have a real problem believing that any leaked transcript, or even recording, was accurate. There's been plenty of time to fake one up.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.