As the president of the United States finds himself embroiled in yet another scandal, he has resorted to his standard defense – double down, admit nothing, and basically say, “I’m president and I can do what the hell I want.”

In an explosive Washington Post story published on Tuesday, intelligence sources revealed that President Trump disclosed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak during a meeting at the White House last week – information that was so sensitive that it was not even shared with U.S. allies. Note: This was the meeting that no U.S. press was allowed into. Second note: meeting with Kislyak and not revealing said meetings is the reason Attorney General Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself from any investigations into Russian tampering with the U.S. presidential election.

The Post reports that the information Trump so offhandedly shared was so classified that calls were made to the CIA and National Security Agency immediately after the meeting to do damage control. Specifically, Trump described details of an Islamic State terrorist threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft. He also allegedly mentioned the city where the intelligence was coming from.

Fallout from such offhanded remarks (which many viewed as the President “bragging”) include the possibility that American allies might be discouraged from sharing intelligence with the United States. Also, the Russians may be able to glean the source of the information and the manner in which it had been collected, effectively outing the source.

Early Tuesday morning on Twitter – because his press representatives and surrogates either refuse to comment or issued carefully worded statements that don’t deny the facts of the report – the president said he has an “absolute right” to share information with the Russians.

“As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism,” wrote President Trump in a series of two Tweets.

Also, as has been his MO, the president did not talk about the fact that he leaked information, but the fact that someone in his White House leaked his leakage to the press. “I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community,” he wrote.

Condemnation of the president’s actions on Tuesday evening were swift – coming from both sides of the aisle. Twitter was ablaze with Trump’s own words condemning Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information by using a private email server (Remember “lock her up?”)

However, in the Trump world, the rules for everyone else apparently don’t apply.

Michelle Obama Calls Out Trump For Denying Healthy Lunches For Kids</s>Israel was apparently the source of the classified information that President Trump spilled to Russian officials in a meeting last week, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing a current and a former American official. Israel is a key U.S. ally, and The New York Times noted that Trump's disclosure "also raises the possibility that the information could be passed to Iran, Russia's close ally and Israel's main threat in the Middle East."

Israeli officials did not confirm the U.S. officials' claims, and Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer insisted that Israel "has full confidence in our intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States and looks forward to deepening that relationship in the years ahead under President Trump." However, Israel was worried about Trump's potential to overshare as far back as January, when "American officials warned their Israeli counterparts to be careful about what they told the Trump administration because it could be leaked to the Russians," The New York Times reported.

Trump insisted Tuesday morning on Twitter that he had an "absolute right" to share the information in his meeting at the White House with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster claimed at a press briefing Tuesday that Trump "wasn't even aware" of where the information he revealed "came from," but McMaster insisted that it was "wholly appropriate" to share in the "context of the conversation." The president does have intelligence privileges not afforded to other senior officials, including the ability to unilaterally declassify information. Becca Stanek</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed the authority to share “facts pertaining to terrorism” and airline safety with Russia, saying in a pair of tweets he has “an absolute right” as president to do so.

Trump’s tweets did not say whether he revealed classified information about the Islamic State group, as published reports have said and as a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The White House has pushed back against those reports, but has not denied that classified information was disclosed in the May 10 meeting between Trump and Russian diplomats. The Kremlin dismissed the reports as “complete nonsense.”

The news reverberated around the world as countries started second-guessing their own intelligence-sharing agreements with the U.S.

A senior European intelligence official told the AP his country might stop sharing information with the United States if it confirms that Trump shared classified details with Russian officials. Such sharing “could be a risk for our sources,” the official said.

The official spoke only on condition that neither he nor his country be identified, because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly

At the White House, Trump said in his tweets, “I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining … to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”

Trump shared details about an Islamic State terror threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, a senior U.S official told AP. The classified information had been shared with the president by an ally, violating the confidentiality of an intelligence-sharing agreement with that country, the official said.

Trump later was informed that he had broken protocol and White House officials placed calls to the National Security Agency and the CIA looking to minimize any damage.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly, would not say which country’s intelligence was divulged.

The disclosure put a source of intelligence on the Islamic State at risk, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the disclosure on Monday.

The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have declined to comment.

The U.S. official said that Trump boasted about his access to classified intelligence in last week’s meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak. An excerpt from an official transcript of the meeting reveals that Trump told them, “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” he said.

Kislyak has been a central player in the snowballing controversy surrounding possible coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign.

The revelations drew strong condemnation from Democrats and a rare rebuke of Trump from some Republican lawmakers. White House officials denounced the report, saying the president did not disclose intelligence sources or methods to the Russians, though officials did not deny that classified information was disclosed in the May 10 meeting.

“The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries including threats to civil aviation,” said H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser. “At no time, at no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known.”

The revelations could further damage Trump’s already fraught relationship with U.S. intelligence agencies. He’s 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 ties to Russia.

The disclosure also risks harming his credibility with U.S. partners around the world ahead of his first overseas trip. The White House was already reeling from its botched handling of Trump’s decision last week to fire James Comey, the FBI director who was overseeing the Russia investigation.

A European security official said sharing sensitive information could dampen the trust between the United States and its intelligence sharing partners. “It wouldn’t likely stop partners from sharing life-saving intelligence with the Americans, but it could impact the trust that has been built, particularly if sharing such information exposes specific intelligence gathering methods,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak about such intelligence sharing.

The Royal Court in Jordan said that King Abdullah II was to speak by telephone with Trump later Tuesday.

The revelation also prompted cries of hypocrisy. Trump spent the campaign arguing that his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, should be locked up for careless handling of classified information.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also disputed the report. He said Trump discussed a range of subjects with the Russians, including “common efforts and threats regarding counter-terrorism.” The nature of specific threats was discussed, he said, but not sources, methods or military operations.

The controversy engulfed the White House. Reporters spent much of the evening camped out adjacent to Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s office, hoping for answers. At one point, an eagle-eyed reporter spotted a handful of staffers, including Spicer and Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, walking toward the Cabinet Room.

Muffled yelling was heard coming from the area near the room, but after a reporter tweeted about the noise, press staffers quickly turned up their television volume, blasting the sound to drown out everything else.</s>Trump says he has ‘absolute right’ to share info with Russia

Washington, UNITED STATES | AFP | US President Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted he had the right to share “facts” with Russia, saying he acted to help Moscow in its “fight against ISIS and terrorism.”

His Twitter message came one day after news broke that he allegedly divulged classified information to Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador to Washington during their visit last week to the Oval Office.

“As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety,” he wrote in an early morning tweet.

In his tweet Trump wrote that he was motivated by “humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”

The Washington Post, citing unnamed officials, had reported that Trump went off script during the meeting, describing details about an Islamic State group terror threat related to the use of laptop computers on airplanes, revealing the city where the information was gathered.

National Security Advisor HR McMaster had denied the president had revealed “intelligence sources or methods” but acknowledged that Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had “reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dubbed the news “nonsense,” saying it was “not an issue for confirming or denying.”

The revelations are the latest in a wave of crises to hit the White House, coming just one week after Trump shocked Washington by sacking his FBI director James Comey.

Comey had been overseeing investigations into links between Trump’s campaign and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump’s meeting with top Russian diplomats came one day after Comey’s firing.

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Also, Like us on facebook</s>President Trump is responding to the backlash against the allegations that he shared "highly classified" information with the Russians by saying he had "the absolute right to do" so.

And he went a step further again taking aim at fired former FBI Director James Comey and "leakers":

The irony seemed lost on Trump that he himself is being accused of being a "leaker" — and that he criticized Hillary Clinton's "extremely careless" handling of classified information during the campaign, calling her "not fit":

The Washington Post broke the news Monday night, and others confirmed and added to reporting, that Trump revealed to Russian officials in a meeting in the Oval Office details of an ISIS plot to use laptops on aircraft. The information was classified and reportedly came from an ally in the Middle East. NPR has not confirmed the details of the reports.

Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Monday night that the story in the Post "as reported, is false." But he also noted that the president talked about "common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation. At no time, at no time, were intelligence sources or methods discussed, and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known."

Michael Anton, spokesman for the National Security Council, tells NPR's Tamara Keith, "My conscience is clear saying there is no contradiction between McMaster's statement and the president's tweet."

To be totally clear: if Trump revealed classified information, it is not illegal. The president can declassify anything he wants — just by saying it. There's no formal process he needs to go through. But this is the kind of information was so "highly classified" that it could subject anyone else to jail time.

Lawfare blog weighed in on that Monday:



"The reason is that the very purpose of the classification system is to protect information the President, usually through his subordinates, thinks sensitive. So the President determines the system of designating classified information through Executive Order, and he is entitled to depart from it at well. Currently, Executive Order 13526 governs national security information. "The Supreme Court has stated in Department of the Navy v. Egan that "[the President's] authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security ... flows primarily from this Constitutional investment of power in the President and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant." Because of his broad constitutional authority in this realm, the president can, at any time, either declassify information or decide whom to share it with."



Still, the issue of criminality is not the whole of the discussion. As NPR's Mara Liasson called what Trump is accused of doing on NPR podcast Up First — "lawful but awful." (Lawfare got into more of the potential problems, like the possibility of this violating the president's oath of office and raising the stakes for whether Trump records conversations in the Oval and for his FBI director pick.)

But there are also potential national-security consequences. There's the potential that:

1. The Middle East ally who gave this to the U.S. will be less likely to share information,

2. Other even closer U.S. allies may be less likely to share intelligence, and

3. If Nos. 1 and 2 happen, that would put Americans at at risk, as the U.S. tries to prevent terrorist attacks and threats like the one Trump allegedly told the Russians about.

Trump also continues to have problems with the intelligence community. It's never a good thing for a president to be at odds with the very people who are tasked with keeping the country safe. If the focus of either or both is getting back at the other, who's watching the gate?

Of course, the U.S. has had problematic intelligence situations with the rest of the world. Some in China are upset with the National Security Agency, for example, for reportedly having been behind the origination of the virus that was used in the Ransomware attack before losing control of it.

The NSA was also at the heart of the Edward Snowden drama, which revealed the U.S. to be spying on world leaders, including close allies.

And, of course, there's the intelligence failures on a lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the rationale that led to the invasion of the country.

U.S. alliances survived those and more, but all of those were with presidents in office who were far more careful with their language, not to mention their tweets.</s>President Trump is responding to the backlash against the allegations that he shared "highly classified" information with the Russians by saying he had "the absolute right to do" so.

And he went a step further again taking aim at fired former FBI Director James Comey and "leakers":

The irony seemed lost on Trump that he himself is being accused of being a "leaker" — and that he criticized Hillary Clinton's "extremely careless" handling of classified information during the campaign, calling her "not fit":

The Washington Post broke the news Monday night, and others confirmed and added to reporting, that Trump revealed to Russian officials in a meeting in the Oval Office details of an ISIS plot to use laptops on aircraft. The information was classified and reportedly came from an ally in the Middle East. NPR has not confirmed the details of the reports.

Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Monday night that the story in the Post "as reported, is false." But he also noted that the president talked about "common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation. At no time, at no time, were intelligence sources or methods discussed, and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known."

McMaster took to the podium in the White House Briefing Room and told reporters that he stood by his statement. "The premise of that article is false," McMaster said, though he did not say the entirety of the article is false and would not confirm nor deny that Trump revealed classified information to the Russians.

"What the president shared was wholly appropriate," McMaster said. He added that there was "no lapse in national security."

Instead, he focused on leaks. "I think national security is put at risk by this leak and leaks like this," he said.

McMaster also did not say whether the president decided in the moment to share the information. He also revealed a key detail that is going to raise more questions.

"The president wasn't even aware where this information came from," McMaster said. "He wasn't briefed."

Reporters were not able to follow up, because McMaster then walked off.

But where the information came from is a key piece of information, given it could put operatives with a key ally at risk.

Michael Anton, spokesman for the National Security Council, tells NPR's Tamara Keith, "My conscience is clear saying there is no contradiction between McMaster's statement and the president's tweet."

To be totally clear: if Trump revealed classified information, it is not illegal. The president can declassify anything he wants — just by saying it. There's no formal process he needs to go through. But this is the kind of information was so "highly classified" that it could subject anyone else to jail time.

Lawfare blog weighed in on that Monday:



"The reason is that the very purpose of the classification system is to protect information the President, usually through his subordinates, thinks sensitive. So the President determines the system of designating classified information through Executive Order, and he is entitled to depart from it at well. Currently, Executive Order 13526 governs national security information. "The Supreme Court has stated in Department of the Navy v. Egan that "[the President's] authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security ... flows primarily from this Constitutional investment of power in the President and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant." Because of his broad constitutional authority in this realm, the president can, at any time, either declassify information or decide whom to share it with."



Still, the issue of criminality is not the whole of the discussion. As NPR's Mara Liasson called what Trump is accused of doing on NPR podcast Up First — "lawful but awful." (Lawfare got into more of the potential problems, like the possibility of this violating the president's oath of office and raising the stakes for whether Trump records conversations in the Oval and for his FBI director pick.)

But there are also potential national-security consequences. There's the potential that:

1. The Middle East ally who gave this to the U.S. will be less likely to share information,

2. Other even closer U.S. allies may be less likely to share intelligence, and

3. If Nos. 1 and 2 happen, that would put Americans at at risk, as the U.S. tries to prevent terrorist attacks and threats like the one Trump allegedly told the Russians about.

Trump also continues to have problems with the intelligence community. It's never a good thing for a president to be at odds with the very people who are tasked with keeping the country safe. If the focus of either or both is getting back at the other, who's watching the gate?

Of course, the U.S. has had problematic intelligence situations with the rest of the world. Some in China are upset with the National Security Agency, for example, for reportedly having been behind the origination of the virus that was used in the Ransomware attack before losing control of it.

The NSA was also at the heart of the Edward Snowden drama, which revealed the U.S. to be spying on world leaders, including close allies.

And, of course, there's the intelligence failures on a lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the rationale that led to the invasion of the country.

U.S. alliances survived those and more, but all of those were with presidents in office who were far more careful with their language, not to mention their tweets.</s>Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday he had the right to share information with Russia related to terrorism and other issues, his first public response to the revelation he disclosed classified information at an Oval Office meeting last week.

"As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety, Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism," he tweeted.

As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining....

...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.

Trump's tweets Tuesday notably lack any mention of whether the information he shared was classified.

And the remarks appear to contradict statements made by his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster -- who told reporters in the wake of the report that "the story as reported is false" -- and White House deputy national security adviser for strategy, Dina Powell, who said Monday "the story is false. The President only discussed the common threats that both countries faced."

Two former officials knowledgeable of the situation confirmed to CNN that the main points of the Post story are accurate: The President shared classified information with the Russian foreign minister.

Trump did not directly reveal the source of the information, but intelligence officials told CNN that there is concern that Russia will be able to figure out the highly sensitive source.

The White House dismissed the report Monday night, issuing several statements before sending McMaster before White House reporters.

"At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed and the President did not disclose any military operations that weren't already publicly known," he said. "I was in the room. It didn't happen."

Early responses to the bombshell report indicate that, if true, handling sensitive details in this manner would have broad implications on US partnerships around the world and could place the lives of agents in the field at risk.

"Never before have I witnessed a senior government official so carelessly threaten an intelligence-sharing relationship," a former senior intelligence official told CNN.

Mark Hertling, a national security, intelligence and terrorism analyst for CNN, said giving Russia information has not historically led to them being forthcoming with the United States.

"I'm concerned about the fact that the President feels like he has to give something to Russia first when there have been repeated instances of Russia being sanctioned in Ukraine, committing war crimes in Syria and conducting operations that are contrary to what we'd like to believe are freedom of operations and sovereignties of different nations," he said Tuesday on CNN's "New Day." "This confuses me to no end."

Phil Mudd, a former CIA analyst, said on "New Day" the fact that Trump chose to discuss classified information but did not ask Russia about its role in the 2016 election is problematic.

"This isn't the biggest news out of that meeting," he said. "Why is nobody talking about the President feels the responsibility to be more courteous to the Russians than to the American people."

"He didn't talk about election meddling," the CNN counterterrorism analyst added. "It's his first face-to-face with the Russians and the secretary of state and the President can't say, 'You shouldn't be meddling in our election' but he can fire (FBI Director James Comey) for investigating that? You've got to be kidding me."

The potential consequences could hardly be more serious, former CIA case officer Bob Baer told CNN's Erin Burnett Monday night.

"The President, by revealing this to the Russians, has lost control of this information. It's going to go to the Syrians, It's going to go to the Iranians -- Russian allies," Baer said.

"The ability to protect that source whoever he is, wherever he is has been seriously undermined ... If a CIA officer had revealed this information to the Russians, he would be fired instantly."

Leon Panetta, a former secretary of defense and CIA director, said Trump had a responsibility to be more careful with sensitive information.

"He is President of the United States. He is not a reality TV star. He is not just another personality. He is President of the United States," he said Tuesday on "New Day."

The Wednesday meeting between Trump, Lavrov and Kislyak had already raised alarm bells in Washington, primarily because it came one day after Trump decided to fire Comey while the bureau investigated his campaign's alleged ties to Russia.

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. But a photographer from Russian state-media Tass attended the meeting and took photos of a laughing Trump with Lavrov and Kislyak.

No US media were allowed into the meeting.

Though an angry White House official told CNN they felt "tricked" by the Russians, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said "proper protocol was followed" by not allowing media into the meeting.

Throughout the 2016 campaign, Trump slammed Hillary Clinton for storing classified information on her private email server.

"Crooked Hillary Clinton and her team 'were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,' Trump tweeted in July. "Not fit!"</s>The bombshell report that President Donald Trump allegedly shared highly classified intelligence with Russian officials has prompted a number of statements from his top advisers and Trump himself.

Questions continue to swirl in the wake of the allegations, reported first by The Washington Post on Monday afternoon.

Here is a roundup of the facts that have emerged.

What we know

According to the Post, Trump shared classified information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., last Wednesday when they met at the White House.

The Post reported that the nature of the information was related to an Islamic State terrorist threat and was gathered by a United States intelligence partner. Russia is not a partner in the intelligence-sharing arrangement from which the information originated.

The White House released a statement shortly after the report was published, calling the story "false."

National security adviser H.R. McMaster issued a statement outside the White House on Monday, saying, "At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed. And the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known."

"I was in the room. It didn't happen," he added.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released a statement saying, "The nature of specific threats were discussed, but they did not discuss sources, methods or military operations."

A senior U.S. official told ABC News that White House officials placed calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency to alert them that Trump shared information with the Russians. The official said that the calls were intended to make sure there was no misunderstanding about what he said.

The official also said that the meeting's notes were edited to remove sensitive information and that such redactions are routine.

Trump suggested in two Twitter posts this morning that he had the authority to divulge information to his Russian guests.

"As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining.... to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism," he wrote.

Speaking to reporters off-camera this afternoon, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump’s meeting was "a discussion about a shared aviation threat."

"They shared and discussed a shared threat that our two countries have," he said.

During a press briefing today, McMaster said Trump "wasn't even aware where this information came from. He wasn't briefed on the source or method of the information [collection] either."

What we still don't know

The biggest questions that remain concern what exactly Trump said during the interaction and details about the intelligence that was disclosed.

McMaster and Tillerson said that the methods and sources of the information were not discussed, but John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and a former counterterrorism and intelligence official at the Department of Homeland Security, noted that every piece of information associated with such intelligence could give clues and lead to action.

Moreover, McMaster said that Trump made his decision based on the nature of the conversation. If there was no prior discussion about the disclosure, a typical interagency approval procedure may not have been followed.

"He made the decision in the context of the conversation, which was wholly appropriate," McMaster said of Trump.

Cohen said the intelligence community and National Security Council have a very deliberative process for sharing sensitive information.

"If the president wants to share intelligence with a country like Russia and ultimately if the original source of the intelligence is a foreign country, whoever is coordinating with the country — whether it's the CIA or the NSA — they go back and get permission from that country. The second part of the process is our intelligence officials will take a subset of the information that was originally provided so they can convey the threat and not disclose sources and methods and other sensitive information," Cohen said.

According to the Post, "The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia," suggesting the process Cohen described was ignored or retroactively followed.

"It creates the risk that the original provider of the information will be less inclined to share sensitive intelligence in the future," Cohen said. "That, I am sure, is what has intelligence officials concerned."

Some other key questions that need to be answered concern which country or agency provided the intelligence to the U.S., whether the conversation between Trump and the Russian officials was recorded and why he decided to share the information with them.

ABC News' Jonathan Karl and Cecilia Vega contributed to this report.</s>President Donald Trump awaits the arrival of Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the White House in Washington, Monday, May 15, 2017. AP Photo/Susan Walsh President Donald Trump's reported disclosure of classified information to Russian diplomats last week is "highly damaging" because it gives Russia an opening to trace the information back to sensitive intelligence sources and could jeopardize the US' relationship with its foreign allies, national security experts say.

"This is highly damaging for two reasons," former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell told CBS on Monday night.

"First, the Russians will undoubtedly try to figure out the source or the method of this information to make sure that it is not also collecting on their activities in Syria - and in trying to do that they could well disrupt the source," Morell said.

"The second damage is that third countries who provide the United States with intelligence information will now have pause to do so if the United States is sharing such information with the Russians without their permission."

Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said during a press briefing on Tuesday that Trump "didn't even know where the information" he disclosed to the Russians had come from. (The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Israel had provided the intelligence Trump shared with Russia. BuzzFeed later confirmed that the intelligence was about an ISIS plot to smuggle laptop bombs on airplanes.)

But the information Trump is believed to have disclosed could still "jeopardize lives" because it could allow the Russians to trace that intelligence back to a particular source, said Bob Deitz, a former senior counselor to the CIA director and former general counsel at the National Security Agency.

Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of defense during the George W. Bush administration, told the Wall Street Journal that Trump's disclosure could have jeopardized "a human source."

"I'm completely gobsmacked," Edelman said. "It's jeopardizing a human source. It's the one thing you're trained to never do. If what Post is reporting is true, it's a stunning indication of his unfitness for office."

Indeed, the information Trump relayed to the Russian diplomats was reportedly "code-word" information - one of the highest classification levels used by the US intelligence community. Israeli officials would have reason to be concerned about that kind of sensitive intelligence falling into the hands of Russia, which is an ally of Israel's biggest regional enemy: Iran.

National security expert Juliette Kayyem said that Trump's "disdain" for the US intelligence community "may be the root" of Trump's decision to disclose the sensitive intelligence to Russia.

"But it's also just a lack of seriousness about the nature of the job that these intel agents actually do," Kayyem said. "Ultimately, Trump did not take what he knew seriously."

Countries 'will think twice' before sharing intelligence

It is unclear how Israel's relationship with the US will be affected by Trump's misstep. But the revelation "will make countries think twice" before they share classified intelligence with the US in the future, Deitz said.

Jim Jeffrey, a former US ambassador who served as deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration, agreed: "The ally who provided the info will have to be told, and that could restrict future reporting" of sensitive intelligence between the partners, he said on Monday.

Jeremy Bash, the former Pentagon chief of staff under President Barack Obama, echoed that sentiment: "Giving the Russians intelligence that our counterterrorism partners have asked us to protect is incredibly dangerous," he told The Wall Street Journal. "It will ensure that those partners don't share with us the information we need to protect ourselves."

When asked whether he was concerned that Trump's disclosure might discourage other US allies from sharing sensitive intelligence with the US in the future, McMaster replied, "No, I'm not concerned at all."

But Israel was reportedly warned by US officials months ago not to give the Trump administration sensitive information for fear it might be leaked to Russia.

"Discussions held in closed forums recently raised fears of a leakage of Israeli intelligence top-classified information, clandestine modus operandi and sources, which have been exposed to the American intelligence community over the past 15 years, to Russia - and from there to Iran," Ronen Bergman reported for the Israeli news outlet YNet in January.

US officials apparently briefed their Israeli counterparts before Trump's inauguration about their belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "leverages of pressure" over Trump. Trump's meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak last week, during which he disclosed the Israeli intelligence, was reportedly requested by Putin.

"There is a special understanding of security cooperation between our countries," Israeli officials told Buzzfeed News on Tuesday. "To know that this intelligence is shared with others, without our prior knowledge? That is, for us, our worst fears confirmed... I would not trust a partner who shared intelligence without coordinating it with us first."</s>WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump takes to Twitter Tuesday to defend sharing information with the Russians.

Trump says he wanted to share with Russia “facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety.” He notes that as president, he has an “absolute right” to do this.

The Washington Post’s report Monday claims Trump put a source of intelligence on the Islamic State at risk during his meeting with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The newspaper says Trump divulged highly classified “code-word” information that could enable the Russians to trace the source of the intelligence.

Trump added a line in his tweet suggesting why he did it: “Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.” The president did not clarify whether the information he shared was classified or not.

The Kremlin also dismisses reports Trump shared classified information with Russian officials, calling the claims “complete nonsense.”

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov responds to the reports Tuesday saying they are “yet more nonsense” and says Moscow doesn’t “want to have to do anything with it,” adding “there is nothing to confirm or deny.”
U.S. intelligence officials had warned Israel not to share sensitive information with President Trump, out of fear that it could be leaked to Russia, and then from Russia to Iran.