White House denies Trump disclosed sensitive material
WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday strongly denied media reports accusing President Donald Trump of revealing highly classified intelligence information to Russia during an Oval Office meeting last week.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell all issued statements saying such reports were wrong.
Trump reportedly relayed information from a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria when meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, in White House on May 10.
The Washington Post first reported the disclosure earlier on Monday, followed by The New York Times and other nationwide news outlets.
“During President Trump’s meeting with Lavrov, a broad range of subjects were discussed among which were common efforts and threats regarding counterterrorism,” Tillerson said. “But they did not discuss sources, methods or military operations.”
Powell said in a statement that the story was false. “The president only discussed the common threats that both countries faced.”
“The president and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation,” said McMaster, who participated in the meeting.
“At no time were any intelligence sources or methods dis- cussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly.” he said.
Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the IS group, an information-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the US government, according to The Washington Post report.
The newspaper said the information was provided by a US partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement, but the partner did not give the US permission to share the information with Russia.
Broad authority
Following the meeting, the White House contacted the CIA and National Security Agency to contain the damage, it said.
However, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that such disclosures broke the law, the media reports said.
The revelations could further damage Trump’s already fraught relationship with US intelligence agencies. He has openly questioned the competency of intelligence officials and challenged their high-confidence assessment that Russia meddled in last year’s presidential election to help him win. His criticism has been followed by a steady stream of leaks to the media that have been damaging to Trump and exposed an FBI investigation into his associates’ possible relations to Russia.
Moscow has denied it sought to interfere in the election.