President Trump defended himself Tuesday against accusations that he shared classified intelligence with top Russian diplomats, by saying he wanted to share facts about terrorism and air travel safety, and that he has the right to share that information.
“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 to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism,” Trump tweeted.
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
The Washington Post reported Monday evening Trump revealed classified information to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak during a White House meeting last week.
The president has the ability to declassify information if he so chooses, and the White House denied Trump revealed anything about intelligence sources to the Russians. Trump’s tweets Tuesday morning were a further defense of his actions that didn’t say explicitly whether he believed the information he shared was classified, or not.
But the news has thrown much of Washington into uproar, especially after Trump spent much of the campaign ripping Hillary Clinton for classified information being on her private email account.
The White House confirmed Trump discussed air safety with the Russians after the Post reported Trump revealed Islamic State plans to carry out a bomb attack on an airplane with an explosive hidden in a laptop.
Trump’s relationship with Russia has been under the microscope for months. Top Trump campaign aides have been investigated for connections with The Kremlin and American intelligence believes Russia interfered in the election while developing a preference for Trump over Clinton.
Russia is also involved in the war against ISIS, but is allied with Syria and Iran instead of the United States and its allies.
