White House refutes 'false' report Trump shared classified info with Russians
Multiple White House officials, including National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, are refuting a Washington Post story claiming that President Donald Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian officials in the Oval Office last week. But some believe McMaster's statement contained holes.
On Monday evening, National Security Advisor McMaster called a report published earlier in the day by the Washington Post “false.”
The report that went viral cited unverifiable sources, unnamed current and former US officials, who claimed that Trump disclosed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak “code-word information” relating to Islamic State during a May 10 meeting in the Oval Office at the White House. The intelligence was reportedly from "a US partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement" and not authorized to be shared with Russia, US allies or even within much of the US government.
“I was in the room. It didn’t happen,” McMaster told reporters outside the White House.
Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell also called the story “false” Monday.
“The president only discussed the common threats that both countries faced," Powell said.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was also at the meeting, denied the allegation.
McMaster told reporters that Trump did discuss civil aviation threats with Lavrov and Kislyak.
Former CIA agent Jack Rice believes that McMaster's prepared statement denying "sources and methods" being disclosed, as well as anything "not already public" actually ignored "what it is that Trump apparently did,"
The Russian Embassy in DC had no comment on the media claim, according to a representative.
