United States President Donald Trump disclosed highly classified information about the Islamic State (ISIS) to Russian officials during a meeting in the Oval office last week, according to The Washington Post.
The incident reportedly occurred a day after Trump fired the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) chief, James Comey. The FBI chief was heading an active probe into Trump administration's suspected ties with Russian officials. The report prompted a heavy backlash from both Democrats and Republicans.
The Post, citing current and former US officials, said the president shared details about an ISIS terror threat, associated with the use of laptop computers on aircraft, with the Russian officials. The US officials, on conditions of anonymity, said the information Trump revealed to the Russians was considered so sensitive that the details of it have been withheld from the US allies. Even not many top US officials knew about it.
Three White House officials, who were present during the meeting on May, 10, said no intelligence sources and methods were discussed, however, they did not deny that classified information was disclosed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.
''I was in the room, it didn't happen,'' HR McMaster, Trump's national security adviser, told reporters outside the White House late on Monday.
''The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries including threats to civil aviation,'' McMaster said. ''At no time, at no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known.''
McMaster said the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, Dina Powell, who were present during the meeting, also maintain the same stance as him. ''Their on-the-record accounts should outweigh those of anonymous sources'', he said.
Tillerson said that Trump, during the meeting, discussed a range of subjects, including ''common efforts and threats regarding counter-terrorism.''
Claiming The Post reports as false, Powell said: "The president only discussed the common threats that both countries faced.''
The Post story was confirmed by The New York Times and Buzzfeed News later. The report, however, does not claim that Trump revealed any specific information about how the intelligence was gathered. Although, it stated that revealing a classified information to Russians will only strain his relations with the intelligence agencies further.
GOP Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that the Trump White House ''has got to do something soon to bring itself under control and order," the Associated Press reported.
''The shame of it is there's a really good national security team in place and there are good, productive things that are under way through them and through others,'' Corker said. ''But the chaos that is being created by the lack of discipline — it's creating an environment that I think makes — it creates a worrisome environment.''
