On Monday, May 15th the Washington Post claimed that President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week.
According to current and former U.S. officials, Trump's disclosures have jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.
The information that Trump revealed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence sharing arrangement that was considered to be so sensitive that the details were withheld from allies and even tightly restricted within the U.S. government.
According to officials, this partner had not given the United States the permission to share classified information with Russia and Trump's decision to share endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State.
As of Tuesday morning (5/16) Trump issued a pair of tweets which confirmed reports by the Washington Post that he did give sensitive information to Russia in a counterterrorism effort.
Trump claims he had an 'absolute right' to share sensitive information pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety for humanitarian reasons as well as a desire to see Russia step up it's counterterrorism efforts.
According to National Security adviser H.R. McMaster " the story that came out [Monday] 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 intelligent sources or methods discussed.”
As of Tuesday morning, National Security spokesman Mike Anton denied that Trump's tweets confirm that he disclosed classified materials to the Russians.