Trump revealed classified information to Russian Federation during recent meeting — WaPost

"The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russian Federation, and officials said Trump's decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State".

"This is code-word information", a USA official familiar with the matter told the Post, referring to one of the highest levels of secret information held by US spies.

And if he (Trump) thinks classified intelligence information is something you're supposed to brag about to Russian Federation.

"Trump went on to discuss aspects of the threat that the United States learned only through the espionage capabilities of a key partner".

The Post report is attributed to unnamed current and former USA officials and does not claim that Trump discussed methods or sources, but that he revealed sensitive information in the course of discussing an Islamic State threat. The story that came out tonight as reported is false.

"That the Russians would be the potential recipients of this intelligence and may be able to determine its source is all the more problematic, since the Russian interest in Syria and elsewhere is, in many respects, deeply antithetical to our own", Schiff said. By doing so, Trump jeopardized cooperation from an ally familiar with the inner workings of the Islamic State group. It potentially damages trust that's critical in these kinds of arrangements. And I think that's one of the really big worries here. "I mean, this shows a complete lack of information about what classified information is and how important".

The anonymous officials told the Post that the information Trump relayed during the May 10 meeting had been provided by a USA partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement.

The meeting, a personal request from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who asked that they meet when he spoke with Trump, earlier this month, was supposed to remain behind closed doors without any media coverage.

The Post story - which was later confirmed by The New York Times and BuzzFeed News - does not claim that Trump revealed any specific information about how the intelligence was gathered. And, of course, this meeting occurred just one day after the president fired the Federal Bureau of Investigation director because he didn't like the way he was looking into possible collusion with Russian Federation by his campaign.

In his conversations with the Russian officials, Trump appeared to be boasting about his knowledge of the looming threats, telling them he was briefed on "great intel every day", an official with knowledge of the exchange said, according to the Post. He's set to depart on Friday, traveling to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican, then attending a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation meeting in Brussels, Belgium, and a G7 meeting in Italy. In initial statements, National Security Adviser HR McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stoped short of outright denial, while Deputy National Security Adviser, Dina Powell, called the report "false".

But "it is all kind of shocking", said a former senior US official close to current administration officials in the Post story. And I was in the room. He departed without taking questions.

H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser who participated in the meeting, told the Post that Trump and the officials, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, discussed "common threats".

GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters the Trump White House "has got to do something soon to bring itself under control and order".

"They are in a downward spiral right now and have got to figure out a way to come to grips with all that's happening", Senator Corker told reporters. Many Republican lawmakers said they had not seen details about the report and did not want to comment.

Eliot Cohen, a former counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice under President George W. Bush, said on Twitter that if Trump had given the classified material to the Russians deliberately, "it would be treason".

SHAPIRO: That was Greg Miller of The Washington Post on his story that the president disclosed highly classified information to senior Russian officials. "Risking sources & methods is inexcusable, particularly with the Russians". "If the President outed a highly classified code-word source intentionally, that would be even more risky".

"The president owes the intelligence community, the American people and Congress a full explanation".

The White House said the allegations, first reported by the Washington Post, were not true. "Revealing classified information at this level is extremely risky and puts at risk the lives of Americans and those who gather intelligence for our country".

Throughout the campaign, Trump repeatedly criticized his Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, over her mishandling of classified information on her private email server.

"We have no way to know what was said, but protecting our nation's secrets is paramount", said Doug Andres, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan.