The White House yesterday defended President Donald Trump's disclosure of classified information to senior Russian officials as "wholly appropriate", as officials tried to beat back criticism from fellow Republicans and concerns from global allies.
In an interview with CBS News' Nancy Cordes, Schiff said there is "mounting concern" about how the Trump administration "appears to be interfering with the Russian Federation investigation".
Israel's top-selling newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported in January that Israeli intelligence officials had been told in a meeting with U.S. colleagues that "Israeli intelligence information, methods of operation and sources" could leak from a Trump administration seen as having close ties to the Kremlin.
"The disclosure of highly classified information has the potential to jeopardize sources and to discourage our allies from sharing future information vital to our security", Sen. In two tweets, Trump said the conversation with the diplomats was an acceptable way to provide facts related to airline safety and terrorism, and he declared he had "the absolute right" to share the details.
Trump wrote that he was motivated by "humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russian Federation to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism".
Trump shared information about a threat from the Islamic State group while hosting Russia's foreign minister and ambassador to Washington.
The answer, they found Tuesday evening, was demanding former FBI Director James Comey give up the goods.
The White House refused to comment on the report.
"It's always a hard job, but there's no question in my mind the president has made it harder for his immediate staff, which is there to support him", said Ari Fleischer, press secretary to Republican President George W. Bush.
"Nobody knows where this really goes from here", the White House official said. As The Post reported it, he appeared childishly boastful about his "great intel".
USA lawmakers want to see Comey memo on Trump meeting
The newspaper said Comey was in the Oval Office that day with other national security officials for a terrorism threat briefing. The White House says the report is "not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr.
Addressing the Comey memo, GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas said: "If Comey felt like the president was trying to obstruct justice, Comey would have been duty-bound to report it to the DOJ and act on it".
Defending Trump's actions, officials played down the importance and secrecy of the information, which had been supplied by Israel under an intelligence-sharing agreement, and Trump himself said he had "an absolute right" as president to share "facts pertaining to terrorism" and airline safety with Russian Federation.
Democrats pointed out that Ryan had called for Democrat Hillary Clinton to be denied classified briefings after Comey concluded a year ago that she was careless in how she handled classified information over her email accounts. Other countries might have better connections on the ground (particularly in countries hostile to the U.S.) or a stronger cultural understanding of the country in question.
"This is their time to shine, to show Americans and the world that the White House isn't becoming a circus of errors".
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said that so-called "code-word information" is one of the most highly classified forms of intelligence available.
"It would be nearly inconceivable that any president would let something of that nature out", Mr Leahy said.
But the military chief was yesterday said to be furious with Trump's tweets which undercut his attempt to contain the damaging report. The processes in place to ready the president for interactions with foreign leaders are shockingly attenuated: A lot of the spade work is done by his inexperienced son-in-law, Jared Kushner, while key positions at the National Security Council and State Department remain unfilled.
The president's admission follows a familiar pattern.
"This is perhaps the gravest allegation of presidential misconduct in the scandal-ridden four months of the Trump administration", the blog said.
He later said it was his decision.
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