What’s going on?Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office May 10. There, Trump shared details about an Islamic State threat involving laptops on airplanes, according to media reports.This information is so sensitive, according to media reports, that the United States hasn’t shared it with its allies, much less an adversary like Russia. Trump’s disclosures could jeopardize the United States’ relations with the unidentified Middle Eastern country that procured the intelligence, and it could also put critical intelligence sources in danger. (The says Israel is the information source.)While this was a private meeting between Trump and the two Russian diplomats, closed to the American press, a Russian state news photographer was present.The broke the story May 15, and and the soon followed suit. We should note that these reporters based their stories on anonymous sources, which we don’t use at PolitiFact, so we are unable to independently confirm them.
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How has the White House responded?The White House’s response has shifted since the story broke Monday afternoon, though officials speaking on the record have consistently tried to discredit the reporting.The administration initially denied that sources, methods or military operations, were disclosed to the Russian delegation. Later, the administration acknowledged that specific threats were discussed.
Speaking to reporters that afternoon, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster called the Washington Post story 'false.' The White House also said that firsthand accounts of those present in the meeting should outweigh those of the anonymous sources on whom the reporters based their stories.It’s worth noting that McMaster and other White House officials that Trump shared classified information with the diplomats, the gravamen of the Washington Post report.McMaster, in a press briefing May 16, again sidestepped questions about what Trump disclosed and whether it was classified.
He described the disclosure as 'wholly appropriate.' Washington Post reporter Greg Miller, who co-wrote the story, that the White House is 'playing word games.' How does this tie into the Russia-Trump storyline?There’s no obvious connection between this incident and the ongoing investigations, which are Trump associates’ Russia connections in the context of the election.But it certainly adds to the mounting pile of Russia-related controversies the Trump administration.
And it provides fodder for Trump’s critics who say he is with.Kislyak, the Russian ambassador present at the May 10 Oval Office meeting, has been at the center of several episodes in the Trump-Russia. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was ousted after lying about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has faced criticism for failing to disclose meetings he had with the ambassador in 2016.We don’t know what motivated Trump to share this information with the Russians. The Washington Post said Trump went off-script and was 'boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat.' It’s important, however, to consider the possibility that Trump made a strategic national security decision to reveal this information to the Russian diplomats,. How do Trump’s actions compare to what he has said in the past about classified information?Trump excoriated Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail for the private email server she used as secretary of state — saying her mishandling of classified information disqualified her from the presidency. Pundits have said that Trump’s criticism of Clinton now rings hollow.'
This is not just extreme carelessness with classified material, which is still totally disqualifying,' Trump said at July 2016 campaign rally. 'This is calculated, deliberate, premeditated misconduct.'
'Clinton’s home email server that she lied to the American people about was a profound national security risk. Hillary Clinton has bad judgment and is unfit to serve as President,' he wrote on in August.Trump has also lamented the many to the media coming out of his administration, particularly those containing classified information about investigations into Trump’s Russia connections.' The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy.
Very un-American!' How does this compare to Hillary Clinton’s private email server controversy?The Trump and Clinton situations are vastly different, though both involve possible mishandling of classified information.Of the more than 45,000 emails on Clinton’s email server — which wasn’t equipped to handle classified information — FBI agents found 81 classified email chains. Eight of them were the highest level of classification, top secret; 37 were secret; and 36 were confidential, the lowest level of classification.We do not know how sensitive the classified information was, though Comey said Clinton and others on her team 'should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.' However, Comey also said there wasn’t significant evidence that Clinton intentionally mishandled classified information or was disloyal to the United States.In contrast, the news reports give the impression that Trump intentionally shared extremely sensitive information with an adversary, an action that some say could seriously damage U.S.
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