Deep State Leaks Highly Classified Info to Washington Post to Smear President Trump
Current and former U.S. officials, supposedly concerned that President Trump had shared some “highly classified information” with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador to the U.S. last week, leaked that information to the Washington Post in an article published Monday.
However, the report admits that it is “unlikely” Trump broke any laws.
“As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law,” the report said.
In addition, his national security adviser, who was at the meeting, told the Post nothing was shared that was not already publicly known.
“At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly,” said Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster.
McMaster later told reporters at the White House, “Other senior officials who were present, including the secretary of state, remember the meeting the same way and have said so. Their on-the-record accounts should outweigh those of anonymous sources. I was in the room, it didn’t happen.”
“This story is false. The president only discussed the common threats that both countries faced,” added Dina Powell, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, who also attended the meeting.
The current and former officials told the Post that Trump shared information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak that was obtained by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing agreement and was so sensitive it was withheld from U.S. allies and restricted within the U.S. government.
The officials said Trump’s disclosure risked cooperation from an ally that had access to the inner workings of the Islamic State, which they then shared details of with the Post.
The current and former officials told the Post that Trump discussed an Islamic State terrorist threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft.
They said that senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and National Security Agency after the meeting.
The officials bashed the president, portraying him as “reckless.”
Read the rest here.
