The Real Problem With Trump's Russian Revelation

Moreover, Trump said he had every right to share with Russian officials facts about the fight against terrorism and airline safety.

Washington reporters, always looking for spin and well attuned to language that provides rhetorical escape routes, noted that the Post story never quite alleged what McMaster was denying-that intelligence sources and methods were discussed-and focused on the "as reported" qualifier, which affords McMaster the appearance of issuing a blanket denial without actually offering a blanket denial.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of NY also called the story "disturbing", adding, "Revealing classified information at this level is extremely unsafe and puts at risk the lives of Americans and those who gather intelligence for our country". (In his carefully worded statement, General McMaster emphasized that "at no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed" - but, even so, discussing the existence or details of a particular plot can, in itself, help reveal the existence of the sources and methods from which it was obtained.) In addition, it would jeopardize not only our intelligence relationship with the partner government in question but also with the other governments with whom we share. And I was in the room. The Kremlin dismissed the reports as "complete nonsense". Trump said in an interview that Comey's ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russian Federation in the 2016 presidential election had factored into Trump's decision to fire him.

According to the press reporting, one USA official familiar with the matter described the information Trump shared as "code-word information", and that a US partner provided it.

"The story that came out tonight, as reported, is false", said National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in a brief statement to the press Monday night. "Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russian Federation to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism", Trump said in two tweets. Following a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump said only that his meeting last week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was "very, very successful".

Congressional investigators are expected to seek copies of any notes taken during the meeting, a congressional source said.

The potential consequences could hardly be more serious, former Central Intelligence Agency case officer Bob Baer told CNN's Erin Burnett Monday night. He's expected to be warmly received by Arab allies in Saudi Arabia, who welcomed his decision to launch missiles against a Syrian air base following a chemical weapons attack, and in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu views Trump as more favourable to his interests than former President Barack Obama.

Trump's tweets Tuesday morning indicated that he did share some information with his Russian visitors. While the facts are still unfolding, this would - if true - represent a serious failure to protect highly sensitive sources and methods.

The U.S. and Western officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive information. "The President of The United States can not just do or say or speak whatever the hell he wants. He is President of the United States", he said Tuesday on "New Day".

What is Trump accused of doing?

A former senior US intelligence official told McClatchy the disclosure was "an intelligence officer's worst nightmare". The meeting was on the president's public schedule but American press was not allowed in; images of the meeting were made available through Russian state media. He described the White House as "on a downward spiral". Trump reportedly shared information about an effort by the terror group ISIS to craft explosives that can be hidden inside portable electronic devices, like laptops, and to have identified the city in which the project is located.

"Crooked Hillary Clinton and her team 'were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information, ' Trump tweeted in July".