WASHINGTON, D.C., May 15, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — The Washington Post is reporting that President Donald Trump shared highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador to the U.S. last week during a meeting at the White House.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement Monday that Trump discussed many subjects with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.
“During President Trump’s meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov a broad range of subjects were discussed among which were common efforts and threats regarding counter-terrorism. During that exchange the nature of specific threats were discussed, but they did not discuss sources, methods or military operations,” Tillerson, who was in the meeting, said in a statement White House press secretary Sean Spicer provided to White House reporters.
The White House has not confirmed that the nature of the disclosures was highly classified.
Dina Powell, White House deputy national security adviser for strategy, who was in the meeting, said the report was untrue.
“This story is false,” she said, in a statement provided by Spicer. “The President only discussed the common threats that both countries face.”
According to the Washington Post report, Trump shared details about how ISIS hopes to use laptop computers as bombs to be used on airplanes.
H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser who was at the meeting, reportedly told the Washington Post that Trump and the Russian officials discussed “common threats.”
“The President and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation,” McMaster reportedly told The Washington Post. “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly.”
