The Washington Post is reporting that President Donald Trump revealed highly classified information about Islamic State militants to Russian officials during a meeting at the White House last week.
The newspaper cites current and former U.S. officials who say Trump jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on IS in his conversations with the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador to the U.S. They say Trump offered details about an IS terror threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft.
The newspaper says the information was very sensitive and had been provided by a U.S. partner.
The CIA is declining to comment.
A source familiar with the workings of the Senate Intelligence Committee says the committee members -- including its leaders -- have not been briefed on the president's alleged comments to the Russians, according to CBS News' Nancy Cordes.Â
One official told the paper that Trump "revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies." But given the president's wide latitude in declassifying materials, it's unlikely that he broke any laws by sharing the information with the Russians.Â
"The president and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation," national security advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster, a participant in the meeting, told the paper. "At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly."
McMaster spoke outside the White House late Monday afternoon, saying, "there's nothing that the president takes more seriously than the security of the American people. The story that came out tonight as reported is false. The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of 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 discuss any military operations that were not already publicly known. Two other senior officials who were present, including the secretary of state, remember the meeting the same way and have said so. They're on the record and their accounts should outway the other sources. I was in the room. It didn't happen. Thanks everybody. Thank you."Â
However, the Post report doesn't say that Trump discussed methods or sources with Lavrov and Kislyak. Instead, the paper says Trump discussed information provided by a source relating to a specific terrorist threat. In doing so, he disclosed elements of a plot being planned by ISIS, the danger posed by the plot, and the city in ISIS-held territory where the U.S. ally had detected the threat.Â
Based on that information, "Russia could identify our sources or techniques," a senior U.S. official told the Post, although the response from Lavrov and Kislyak at the time was reportedly "muted."Â
(The Associated Press, CBS News also contributed to this report.)
