From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Trump defends giving classified info to Russia
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleUS President Donald Trump takes to Twitter to defend his controversial decision to give classified intelligence information to Russia.
According to Trump, he has “the absolute right to do” so and shared the information in order to encourage Russia to “greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”
As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
…to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
According to revelations in the Washington Post Monday, off-the-cuff disclosures by Trump to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Moscow’s ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, last Wednesday may have jeopardized an important source of intelligence on the Islamic State terror group.
According to US officials, Trump’s revelations endangered cooperation with a US ally that is reported to have access to the workings of the Islamic State terror group.
The Times of Israel Community.