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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:44PM (3 children)
> And, uhhhhhhh - where does Congress fit into this picture?
WTF dude?
The issue is whether compromising the intelligence agencies' ability to do their job is a good idea.
You've tried to derail this into some bizarro rant about Obama and Cuba and you think I'm the partisan with bad judgment?
Its as if you've been told you are a delusional partisan so many times you've decided its just a meaningless insult so now you say it whenever you want to insult people you disagree with.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Wednesday May 17 2017, @10:50PM (2 children)
I think compromising the intelligence agencies' ability to do their jobs is a great idea. Another poster suggested that Trump doing to the spooks what they've done to him (ie. leaks) might piss off US "allies." Honestly, I got a little excited when I read this. I thought "if the relationship were to sour between US spooks and their foreign accomplices, what will become of their whole NATO protection racket?" I'm not confident that Trump is clever enough to come up with this plan. But if he were, I'd say "Bravo, Mr. President."
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @11:10PM (1 child)
> I think compromising the intelligence agencies' ability to do their jobs is a great idea.
Clearly you have zero idea as to the job of the intelligence agencies.
Without them the president and congress will be in the dark and unable to make informed foreign policy decisions.
That kind of shit is how wars get started.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @05:47AM
They are in the dark about just about everything else they do.
What makes this so special?