Washington Post: Trump shared classified info to Russians

(CNN)President Donald Trump shared highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador to the US in a White House meeting last week, according to The Washington Post.

The White House scrambled to respond to the report Monday night, issuing several statements before sending H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser who participated in the meeting, out to speak with White House reporters.

"At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the President did not disclose any military operations that weren't already publicly known," he said. "I was in the room. It didn't happen."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement earlier Monday that Trump discussed a "broad range of subjects" with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

"During President Trump's meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov a broad range of subjects were discussed among which were common efforts and threats regarding counter-terrorism. During that exchange the nature of specific threats were discussed, but they did not discuss sources, methods or military operations," Tillerson, who was in the meeting, said in a statement provided by White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
Dina Powell, White House deputy national security adviser for strategy, who also attended the meeting, said: "This story is false. The President only discussed the common threats that both countries faced," in a statement provided by Spicer.

According to the Post, Trump described details to Lavrov and Kislyak about how ISIS hopes to use laptop computers as bombs on planes.
"I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day," one official with knowledge told the Post described Trump as saying, before the President reportedly relayed specific intelligence.
CNN has yet to confirm the details of The Washington Post report.

H.R. McMaster had told the Post that Trump and the Russian officials discussed "common threats."
"The President and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation," McMaster told The Washington Post. "At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly."

Last edited by Goose (5/15/2017 6:47 pm)