President Trump Defends Revealing Classified Intel With White House in Disarray: Reports

WASHINGTON, DC — Sitting down with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a closed-door meeting in the White House last Wednesday, with no American press allowed in, President Trump was already under heavy fire for his monumental firing of the FBI Director James Comey the night before. Comey had revealed to the American public what leaks had already suggested: Trump's campaign is under investigation for potentially colluding with Russian intelligence operatives to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. But sitting in the Oval Office with two Russian officials, Trump could hardly have been aware that his next moves could unleash even more outrage and backlash than his curt dismissal of Comey had inspired.

According to a bombshell report from the Washington Post Monday night, Trump revealed to his guests in that meeting classified details relating to a crucial intelligence source in the fight against ISIS. Anonymous U.S. officials told the paper Trump was "boasting" as he said, "I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day.” (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

He went on to discuss intelligence provided to the U.S. by a foreign power, intelligence that was not meant to be shared with other countries, multiple outlets reported. At the urging of officials, the Post did not reveal specifics about the intelligence Trump shared with the Russians. However, the story notes that the classified information contained details of a planned attack by ISIS, including the city where a U.S. intelligence partner learned of the plot. Officials fear that the substantive intelligence revealed could be used to "reverse engineer" the source, endangering the person or people who obtained the information, undermining American reliance on ally intelligence and thwarting any future use of the source.

National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster went on the record with the Post saying that no intelligence sources or methods were discussed at the meeting and no military options were revealed that were not widely known. However, he did not deny the central charge that Trump revealed critical classified information.

Because Trump is the president, it's likely the revelations reported in the Post were not illegal. But official sources expressed deep concerns to the paper about the choice to share information that the United States has not even passed along to its allies. Officials who spoke anonymously to the Post called the incident "shocking" and Trump's behavior "reckless."

After the news broke, McMaster made a televised statement, essentially repeating his quotes in the story. But he also added, "The story that came out tonight as reported is false," and "I was in the room. It didn’t happen." The Post said McMaster never told the paper that the story was false while its journalists were reporting the story.

McMaster never specifically addressed the central claim of the Post article, that the president revealed classified information that could potentially endanger the source of the intelligence. The White House has also not publicly denied this claim, and it did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Buzzfeed all confirmed the central tenets of The Post article.

"It’s far worse than what has already been reported,” one source told Buzzfeed.

Trump himself seemed to all but confirm the story Tuesday morning on Twitter:

An unnamed European official told the Associated Press Tuesday that his country was considering not sharing intelligence with the United States if the reports prove true.

As outlets worked to confirm the story Monday night, reporters descended on the West Wing for comment. Press Secretary Sean Spicer was holed up in his office, and Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that there would be no more public comments from the White House Monday night. McMaster, walking by the crowd of journalists outside Spicer's officer, said, "This is the last place in the world I want to be," according to the Daily Beast.“Do not ask me about how this looks, we all know how this looks,” one unnamed aide told the paper.

"It never stops," a White House official said, according to Politico. "Basically chaos at all times."

After a catastrophic news cycle last week, reports of a staff shakeup coming to the West Wing and an upcoming presidential trip, White House aides were surely hoping the chaos would finally settle down this week, at least for a bit.

Almost immediately, lawmakers began reacting to the news.

"If true, this is a slap in the face to the intel community," Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia wrote on Twitter. "Risking sources & methods is inexcusable, particularly with the Russians."

"We need to be clear, we do not know if these allegations are true or false, but if -- IF -- these allegations are true, President Trump may have just disclosed top secret information to the Russians and possibly jeopardized an intelligence source in the process," said Democrat Rep. Elijah Commings of Maryland and Democrat Rep. John Conyers of Michigan said in a statement. "This is the same meeting in which Russian officials laughed with the President in front of Russian photographers inside the Oval Office while members of the American press were excluded."

Republicans took a much more cautious approach to the news. Doug Andres, a spokesman for Speaker Paul Ryan, said Monday night, "We have no way to know what was said, but protecting our nation's secrets is paramount. The speaker hopes for a full explanation of the facts from the administration."

"If that’s true, I would say it’s disturbing,” said Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. “There are lots of risks. If they say it was classified, then it was public knowledge; then you hurt the national security of the United States. That’s why you classify it.”

On Bloomberg Business Tuesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, "“I think we could do with a little less drama from the White House on a lot of things so that we can focus on our agenda.”

Many pointed out previous statements made by Republicans regarding classified information when the issue was Hillary Clinton's emails.

"Individuals who are 'extremely careless' with classified information should be denied further access to such info," Ryan said in July 2016, referring to the former secretary of State and then-candidate for president.

Trump himself tweeted at that time, "Crooked Hillary Clinton and her team 'were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.' Not fit!" In September 2016, at a speech, he said Clinton would, "put classified information in the reach of our enemies."

Critics of the news media also lashed out at Monday night's reports, calling it "fake news."

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