Trump claims ‘right’ to reveal secrets
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump appeared to acknowledge yesterday that he revealed highly classified information to Russia – a stunning confirmation of a Washington Post story and a move that contradicted his own White House team after it scrambled to deny the report.
Trump’s tweets tried to explain away the news, which emerged late on Monday, that he had shared sensitive, “code-word” information with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador during a White House meeting last week – a disclosure that intelligence officials warned could jeopardise a crucial intelligence source on the self-styled Islamic State group.
“As president I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled WH meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety,” Trump wrote yesterday.
“Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”
Trump’s tweets undercut his administration’s frantic effort on Monday night to contain the damaging report. The White House trotted out three senior officials – National Security adviser HR McMaster, deputy National Security adviser Dina Powell, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson – to deny the very reports Trump openly confirmed less than 24 hours later.
Trump’s admission also follows a familiar pattern. Last week, after unexpectedly firing FBI director James Comey, the White House originally claimed Trump was acting in response to a memo provided by deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein.
But in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Trump later admitted he had made the decision to fire Comey well before Rosenstein’s memo, in part because he was frustrated by the director’s investigation into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and the Russian government. At the time, Trump was surprised by the almost universal bipartisan backlash to his decision, and raged at his staff, threatening to shake up his already tumultuous West Wing. His communications team – director Mike Dubke and press secretary Sean Spicer – bore the brunt of Trump’s ire.
On Monday night, after The Washington Post story, Trump was again frustrated with Dubke and Spicer, according to someone with knowledge of the situation.
But his decision yesterday to undermine his own West Wing staff in a series of tweets is unlikely to help him bring stability to his chaotic administration.
Because Trump has authority to declassify information, it is unlikely his disclosures to the Russians were illegal as they would have been had just about anyone else in the government shared the same secrets. But the information he shared with a geopolitical foe was nonetheless explosive.