Donald Trump reportedly revealed highly classified information about Isis to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week.
The information revealed by the President while in the Oval Office, was said to have been provided to the US by an American ally through a sensitive intelligence sharing arrangement.
In a scoop that threatened still further to weaken the President’s credibility and sent shock waves through the political universe, The Washington Post said the partner had not given permission for the information to be shared with Russia. After the meeting, White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and National Security Agency. It has not been reported which third country was involved. The British Embassy in Washington declined to comment when contacted by The Independent.
“This is code-word information,” one US official told the newspaper, a reference to one of the highest classification levels used by the American intelligence agencies. “[Trump] revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”
After the Post detailed Mr Trump’s alleged actions, reaction was swift and harsh.
Democratic senator Chris Murphy called it “another in a very disturbing trend of careless behaviour by this administration”.
“If this story is true, it’s another brick in the wall of a really, really troubling connection between Trump and the Russian government,” he said.
The development was the latest incident to shake Washington, still stunned by the firing of FBI Director James Comey. The White House has been scrambling to project a sense of order, after Mr Trump himself created mayhem by contradicting his own officials explanation for the firing.
The report on Monday evening said one the most concerning aspects of the slip, was that Mr Trump revealed the city in Isis territory where the US intelligence partner detected the threat. There were claims that Russia could use the information to undermine the US, or its ally.
