Trump shared highly classified intelligence with Russian ambassador and foreign minister

“I get great intel,” the President bragged to Russian officials before disclosing intelligence about a possible aviation terror plot

The Washington Post revealed explosive information Monday about President Donald Trump’s meeting with two Russian officials last week.

In what appears to have been an effort to boast about the intelligence the President of the United States has access to, Trump reportedly shared highly classified intelligence related to the war on terror with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.

According to White House officials who spoke to the Washington Post, Trump shared the classified information after bragging about his knowledge of a potential aviation threat from the Islamic state.

“I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” Trump reportedly said, before discussing in detail the highly classified information provided by an intelligence partner who did not give the United States permission to share any of it with Russia.

According to the Washington Post, the intelligence is so sensitive that it has not even been shared with United States allies. And Trump’s disclosure reportedly poses a threat to the intelligence-sharing partnership with the source of the information.

President Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies,” an official with knowledge of the situation told the Washington Post. 

“This is code-word information,” the official said.

A subsequent report in Buzzfeed also cited government officials who confirmed the unauthorized disclosure. One source told Buzzfeed that “it’s far worse than what has already been reported.”

The Washington Post report noted that such a disclosure on the part of anyone else within the U.S. government would be against the law. But the President of the United States has the authority to declassify intelligence.

 

Photo: Associated Press